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BOOKS BY 
CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 

A New Heaven and a New Earth. 
Thought Studies of the Fourth Dimen- 
sion. 

12mo, cloth. $1.25 net. 

What Is New Thought ? The Living 
Way. 

12mo, cloth. $1.00 net. 

The Rhythm of Life. A fundamental 
examination of laws relating to rhythmic 
and vibratory forces that influence the 
sphere of thought and feeling. 

8vo, cloth. $1.50 net. 



THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
NEW YORK 



THE RHYTHM OF 
LIFE 



BY 

CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 

AUTHOR OP "dominion AND POWER," "THE WILL TO BE IWELL," "A NEW 

HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH," "WHAT IS NEW THOUGHT?" "iN THE 

SUNLIGHT OF HEALTH," "LIVING WATERS," "THE MEASURE OF 

A MAN," "beyond THE CLOUDS," "THE LIBRARY OF 

HEALTH," "new THOUGHT ESSAYS" 

Fonnerly Editor of Mind and The Arena 



NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



3H4 



Copyright, 1915, 
By CHARLES BRODIE PATTERSON 



l'^ 



APR -7 1916 



Ci.A428423 



FOREWORD 

Dear Dr. Charles Brodie Patterson 

This is a work for which I have long waited. I 
find here a fundamental examination of spiritual and 
physical laws relating to the rhythmic and vibratory 
forces that rule in the human sphere of thought and 
feeling. 

At a time when so much work is done, having mere 
impressionism as a basis, it is a source of joy to know 
that you have put into this book the product of years 
of patient observation and searching analysis, and I 
feel certain that it will stand the test of time. 

In Chapter III, under the title "Energy-Motion- 
Vibration," you go to the foundation of the subject 
of vibration, and in "Music and Colour Tones" you 
show their relation, and write with absorbing interest. 

My first experience with the therapeutical power of 
music was in Paris at a time when the subject was 
not even discussed; but not until I went to live in 
London did I put the subject to a practical test. A 
friend of mine, the late Miss Clara Barton, who was 
for a long time President of the Red Cross Associa- 
tion of America, being dangerously ill, I was strongly 
impressed to try what musical improvisation would do 
in her case; a piano was moved into her apartment, 
and there every day I improvised for about one hour. 
The experiment proved successful, and in a compara- 
tively short time Miss Barton was able to leave her 
bed. The cure proved permanent. I could relate 
many instances of a similar nature among my friends 
in Florence, Berlin, and other cities. 



iv FOREWORD 

For years I meditated the writing of such a book as 
you have now brought out, and I can say without any 
reserve that you have expressed my views and judg- 
ments all along the different lines of thought herein 
set forth. I shall now refer my friends to this work, 
for I do not think in our time a better can be written 
by anyone here or abroad. 

There are chapters such as "Colour Tonics," "Cos- 
mic Consciousness," and ^'Musical Therapeutics," that 
go to the fundamental basis of the subject, and you 
have put into concise terms what many would only 
render more recondite and mysterious. The laws you 
enunciate are as old as time, but the large vision pre- 
sented to the mind of the reader, the harmonious ar- 
rangement and the lucid definitions make the work 
authoritative and original. Every chapter deals with 
some phase of life-rhythm, some aspect of sound 
waves, some manifestation of colour-tone to which 
every human being is more or less intimately related. 

The book is a key to the rhythm of life. Students 
of the new therapeutics, artists, musicians, singers and 
public speakers will study it as a text book. 

Very sincerely yours, 

FRANCIS GRIERSON. 

New York, March 15, 1915. 



PREFACE 

For many years I have been haunted by an idea 
that would not remain at rest in my mind, but kept 
ever and ever recurring; therefore, I have sought in 
this book to voice the thoughts which have so long 
been my companions, giving expression to them, as 
best I can, through the written word. 

It is more than a quarter of a century ago that I 
began to dream dreams of music and colour that should 
prove a universal panacea for anxious and fearful 
minds, for sick and diseased bodies; a panacea that 
should dispel sorrow and doubt, that should bring rest 
and peace to mind, and health and strength to body. 
I felt then, as I feel now, that a new spring-time 
should corhe to the world when a greater love of music 
and colour should enter into the life of man. So the 
text of this book is to bring light out of darkness, to 
bring health out of disease, and to bring joy out of 
pain; to proclaim, as it were, a new gospel of health, 
happiness, and beauty, to help to bring into our lives 
the new song of life that will surely come when we 
have prepared the way for its coming. 

There is a necessary preparation before one may 
receive this new gospel. One must first be willing to 
lay aside biased and prejudiced thought, and earnestly 
desire truth solely for its own sake. Lord Bacon said, 
"No pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the 
vantage ground of truth." In the study of truth we 
often have to lay aside preconceived thoughts and 
ideas in order to make the mind receptive to a new or 
a still greater truth. Many times have I wished that 
someone would write a book on music and colour for 



VI 



PREFACE 



the healing and beautifying of mind and body, but as 
yet no one has seen fit to do so. Therefore I can re- 
frain no longer, and simply have to obey the behest 
of something in my own consciousness that will not 
let me rest until I begin and finish this book. 

I know that I am only a pioneer, or perhaps the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness; nevertheless, I 
am absolutely certain that a day will come in the far 
or near future, I know not which, when music and 
colour will exert a thousandfold more influence upon 
human life than they do at present. And if I can have 
some little part in bringing into the world a recogni- 
tion of other values in music and colour than those we 
have heretofore known, I am satisfied. 

This book is not intended to show the definite way 
that one should take, but rather to suggest the pos- 
sibilities that will reward the earnest seeker who de- 
votes time and thought to carrying on a still more 
thorough investigation of the subject. 

I know that in any new departure one must run the 
gauntlet of true, as well as superficial criticism, but I 
am in no way deterred by this, knowing that what- 
ever may be true in the book will survive false criti- 
cism, and whatever there may be of dross will sooner 
or later perish. Thought lives in the mind in order to 
be expressed, to take form as the written or the spoken, 
word. I leave my written word to the critic and lay 
reader alike, as an expression of my own thought and 
feeling, hoping that it will bring some spiritual, men- 
tal, or physical uplift that will prove to be for the 
highest good of all. And if I call out a deeper emo- 
tion or a higher aspiration that will make for a greater 
love of music and colour and their fuller expression in 
life, I shall rest thoroughly content, feeling that this 
book will have proved of some benefit to my fellow- 
men, and so have fulfilled the dearest wish of the 
author. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 




PAGE 




Foreword 


iii 




Preface 


V 


I. 


Introduction . . . * . 


1 


11. 


Music of Other Climes 


6 


III. 


Energy Motion — Vibration . 


22 


IV. 


Music and Colour Tones 


. 37 


V. 


Colour Values .... 


49 


VI. 


Music — A Compelling Power 


60 


VII. 


Joy Rhythm — The Dance 


73 


VIIL 


Nature and Art in Singing 


85 


IX. 


Colour Tonics .... 


110 


X. 


Keynote to Health — Harmony . 


125 


XL 


From Out the Past 


142 


XIL 


Cosmic Consciousness 


154 


XIII. 


Prophets of the Invisible 


170 


XIV. 


Life's Love Melody 


195 


XV. 


Music, Beauty-Religion 


206 


XVL 


Music and Character . . . . 


223 



viil 


CONTENTS 




CHAPTER 




PAGE 


XVII. 


Music and Education . 


. 237 


XVIII. 


A Refining Influence . 


. 249 


XIX. 


Musical Therapeutics . 


. 262 


XX. 


Alive to Colour and Music 


. 275 


XXI. 


Eye Hath Not Seen 


. 291 



THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION 

The present time is one of transition. The dog- 
matism that has pervaded all schools of thought, 
whether religious or philosophical, scientific or artis- 
tic, is passing away before the coming of a new order, 
a new order that is an expanding as well as a modify- 
ing factor, a new order that has come to fulfil, but 
not to destroy anything that is in any way vital to life. 
On the surface it may appear that this new order is 
highly destructive. It is destructive in that every- 
thing that is found to be useless, and everything that 
has clouded or obscured man's mental vision is grad- 
ually being relegated to the past. 

The nineteenth century was an era of dense ma- 
terialism. It was, strictly speaking, a utilitarian age, 
an age in which man's physical organism played a 
much greater part than his soul. Materialistic thought 
entered into everything. Religion, literature, and art 
were all made the exponents of man's sense, or phys- 
ical nature. The crudest kind of literalism entered 
into everything. Countries like England, which for 
many centuries had given expression to much that was 
beautiful and artistic, seemed, long before the Vic- 
torian age, to lose, in a marked way, a true sense of 
art and beauty. It is only necessary to look at the 

1 



2 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

architecture, the statuary, and most of the paintings 
of that particular period, to perceive how little of the 
artistic and beautiful was to be found there. Only a 
few master minds, poets, and painters, held aloft the 
banner of idealism and beauty. Rank materialism 
ruled on every side. Materialism, scepticism and 
doubt have ever been and ever will be destructive of 
all true art. 

The last twenty-five years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury mark the beginning of a change, not only in Eu- 
rope, but in America as well. Since then, this change 
has been gradually going on, affecting almost every- 
thing in life; but while the old is rapidly passing, it 
is, as yet, only the spring-time of the new, when ideals 
have not yet taken definite form, so that the whole 
world to-day may be said to be filled with unrest and 
expectation. Great composers and poets, who are the 
true interpreters of human life, have been among the 
first to herald the new order. But the sphere of mu- 
sic and poetry is just as much filled with unrest and 
transition as is any other condition of the world's life. 
In the music of to-day there is the search after some- 
thing that has not yet been attained, which is evidenced 
by the increased use of chromatics, changes of modu- 
lation, and hitherto unheard of departures in time and 
rhythm. 

Quite a number of modern composers have intro- 
duced chromatics into their music in what would seem 
to be an excessive way. But it is very doubtful 
whether they have added anything of real beauty or 
charm to it by so doing. It seems to me rather to 
point to a desire for something that has not been fully 
expressed in music, a something that will be expressed 
in a better way, possibly, without the undue use of 



INTRODUCTION 3 

chromatics. Certainly there is very Httle of the 
higher and sweeter thought of Hfe expressed through 
their use. More frequently chromatics are used to 
express sorrow or anger, or, I might say, the stress 
of man's superficial nature. Too often the effect is to 
take from, rather than add to, the beauty or the 
strength of music. There is in its use too much of 
what I might call unreal sentiment, and more or less 
of gloomy foreboding, and the mysterious elements of 
life. Its present use may be indicative of the unrest 
and warfare that prevails throughout the civilised 
world. To me it would seem as though the composer 
were striving after effects through the excessive use of 
chromatics in his music just as much as many people in 
other departments of life are striving after effects that 
have little value or true relation to real expression. 
Within the last few years many Russian composers 
have come to the fore, and they have put into their 
music the unrest of the great Russian nation, the 
pathos of the slavery of its people, and something of a 
desire, too, for greater freedom. Much of their music 
is written in the minor keys. It lacks that triumphant 
sound that comes to the composers who write for a 
free and enlightened people. The music is wonderful 
as an expression of human feeling, but in its undertone 
you find the sadness and the struggle of life. Even 
when there is an effort made to produce music of a 
bright or an inspiring nature, you are sure to find some 
strain that is tinged with the sadness or the unrest of 
a great nation in bondage. 

At present, in France, there has come into vogue 
what, by many, is considered a new school of music, 
of which Debussy may be said to be the founder, or 
chief representative. Whether this is to become the 



4 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

foundation of something new in music that will be- 
come permanent, it is yet too early to say. It may be 
that it will act on music in the way that the impres- 
sionists* painting has acted — to change, to enlarge, or 
to beautify the old art. While one may get from it 
a certain kind of intellectual and psychic stimulus, 
still it does not seem to be, as yet, of a full, soul-satis- 
fying nature. I might add that the effect of Debussy's 
music on myself is not altogether satisfactory. I 
seem to be carried up into the clouds, and left sus- 
pended between heaven and earth, yet my head never 
emerges into the open blue. However, it is only 
through innovations in every department of life that 
the best of everything is at last fully realised. 

Within recent years considerable discussion has 
arisen as to whether music may, or may not, prove 
beneficial in the healing of the sick. It is useless for 
any one to deny the fact that music exerts a decided 
influence upon one's mind and feelings, and there can 
no longer be any question that both thought and feel- 
ing produce a marked action upon man's physical 
body. Among many people there exists a decided dif- 
ference of opinion as regards the value of music. The 
music lover, while not associating it with the renew- 
ing of the strength of his body, nevertheless feels it 
essential to his mental and spiritual welfare. Many 
others who might consider themselves of a more prac- 
tical turn of mind look upon music solely as a luxury, 
and regard the people engaged in its production, i.e., 
composers, singers, and instrumental musicians, as 
mere dilettanti, men and women who are engaged, at 
best, in a work that never makes for any practical or 
real good in life. There are some people in the world 
who seemingly lack the faculty of ever getting beyond 



INTRODUCTION 5 

concrete expression. What they call common sense 
seems to shut out all idealistic vision. They are 
held in bondage to the earth and the things of the 
earth by their sense nature. They are the people who 
let well enough alone, and who never make progress 
save in material accumulations. What they possess, 
what they eat, and what they drink, form their chief 
pleasures in life. But if the music lover is right in 
believing that his soul and mind are both uplifted and 
benefited by listening to music, he must take one step 
farther and see the practical value that accrues also to 
the physical organism. When he is able to do this, 
music will no longer need its defenders, because, if 
music can be made of value in the healing of the sick, 
and the overcoming of mental and physical pain, then 
the most so-called practical man will seek its aid as 
ardently as the lover of music. 



CHAPTER II 

HUSIC OF OTHER CLIHES 

"Nine sisters, beautiful in form and face, 
Came from their convent on the shining heights 
Of Pierus, the mountain of delights, 
To dwell among the people at its base. 
Then seemed the world to change. All time and space, 
Splendor of cloudless days and starry nights. 
And men and manners, and all sounds and sights, 
Had a new meaning, a diviner grace. 
Proud were these sisters, but were not too proud 
To teach in schools of little country towns 
Science and song, and all the arts that please; 
So that while housewives span, and farmers ploughed. 
Their comely daughters, clad in homespun gowns, 
Learned the sweet songs of the Pierides." 

—Longfellow. 

"Therefore the poet 
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods; 
Since naught so stalkish, hard, and full of rage. 
But music for the time doth change his nature." 

— Shakespeare. 

Every country has its own music which has ever 
kept pace with its greatest human development. I 
might put that in a stronger way by saying that the 
music sets the pace, that it was, and is, the real leader 
of civilisation, and that the growth of a nation can best 
be determined by its music. While the music of the 
present time seems to be very largely the product of 
the last few hundred years, without question its real 
beginning had its root in a remote past, for music is 
the very oldest of all the arts. It may be said of music 
that it is the very foundation on which all the other 
arts are builded. We might go still farther and say 
that music is the soul of all art ; that music, in its high- 

6 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 7 

est and best sense, comes closer to the divine in man 
than does anything else in life ; that in its last analysis, 
it is a revelation of God to man. Music is, as it were, 
the link between divinity and humanity. The truly 
great composer is the most divinely inspired of all 
the world's prophets, and through his music he reaches 
far greater audiences and preaches far more wonder- 
ful sermons than the most eloquent preachers on earth 
have ever done. 

Recent discoveries made in Egypt go to show that 
the ancient Egyptians possessed a wonderful knowl- 
edge of music. It is believed that they had more kinds 
of musical instruments in their orchestras than we pos- 
sess at the present time; and it is said also that they 
had instruments to give a full and complete expres- 
sion to the sounds of nature; such as the warring 
of the elements, the flowing of the brooks, the sough- 
ing of the wind, and various other nature sounds; 
while in our orchestras we have instruments which 
can, to a degree, be made to produce such effects, yet 
they were not expressly designed for that purpose, as 
many of the instruments of Egypt apparently were. 
There are^ some writers who go back to the legendary 
continent of Atlantis, and write of the music that ante- 
dated even that of Egypt; but such writing, at best, 
is only speculative, since there is no authentic evi- 
dence concerning it. But of the music of the ancient 
civilisation of Egypt there is an ever-unfolding evi- 
dence showing the wonderful progress that music had 
made in that country practically before the dawn of 
the greater part of the world's civilisation. Maspero 
and other great Egyptologists have shown beyond all 
question that in an ancient past, a civilisation existed 
in Egypt that was one of the most wonderful the 



8 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

world has ever known. And largely through Egyp- 
tian influence there followed another great civilisation, 
greater than any tha* has appeared on the face of 
the earth since that time, namely, the civilisation of 
ancient Greece. Greece, in her use of music, followed 
along lines similar to those of Egypt. Many of her 
musical instruments were like those of Egypt, and 
historically there can be very little question that the 
Grecians drew much of their fundamental musical 
knowledge from Egypt. 

The ancient Greeks were without doubt one of the 
most highly developed and civilised nations that have 
ever inhabited the earth. They were great in every 
department of human endeavour. Great in literature 
and art, great in commerce and war, great in every- 
thing that pertained to mental or physical develop- 
ment. Practically all the civilised nations of the earth 
since their time have been influenced in a marked way 
by ancient Greek thought and art. Many things that 
have come to us in the present as new, research would 
show to be only a revival of the Greek thought of by- 
gone ages ; for ancient Greece has furnished the intel- 
lectual, ethical, and artistic fundamental basis of all 
that is best in the civilised thought of the present. 
Just as, in another way, the Jewish civilisation has 
transmitted to us its religious thought and feeling. 
Undoubtedly Greece influenced the other nations in a 
musical way, although we have no written music of 
that early time. Still, all through Greek literature, we 
find not only reference to the purposes for which 
music was used, but also a full knowledge of the won- 
derful power that could be exercised through its use. 
Greek tradition makes Orpheus their greatest repre- 
sentative of both vocal and instrumental music. We 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 9 

are told that this almost god possessed the power to 
draw the rocks and trees from their places, and even 
to arrest the rivers in their courses by the influence of 
his wonderful voice and lyre. The Greeks looked 
upon him as one of the greatest pioneers of civilisa- 
tion. Pindar writes of him as the "Father of Song." 
We are told, too, that Orpheus was closely associated 
with the mystical, ceremonial side of religion. He 
was said also to have taught mankind the use of medi- 
cine ; and when we read of the many cures effected by 
the Greeks through the use of music, we may well un- 
derstand that he gave to music a prominent part in the 
healing of the sick. One of the legends told is that 
Orpheus and Amphion drew the wild beasts after them, 
made the trees and stones dance to the time of their 
harps, and brought them together in such a manner 
as to form a regular wall and enclose a great city. 
An English writer who lived somewhat over a hun- 
dred years ago wrote: "Stripped of the fable, this 
story, according to general interpretation, signifies 
that they subdued the savage disposition of a bar- 
barous people who lived in caves, woods, and deserts, 
and by representing to them in their songs, the advan- 
tages of society, persuaded them to build cities and 
form a community." If this be true, we see the foun- 
dation of a real community of interests is to be estab- 
lished through the use of music. 

Aristoxenus, an early Greek critic of prosody, dis- 
tinguished the elements out of which rhythm is com- 
posed as: the spoken word, the time of music in song, 
and the bodily motion. And he defined rhythm so pro- 
duced as an arrangement of the time periods. The 
art of the early Greek poets was devoted to a har- 
monious combination of language, instrument, and 



lo THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

gesture, the whole three uniting to form perfect 
rhythm. Ages ago it was known that rhythm could 
be put into everything we do with the greatest ad- 
vantage, so that no matter what work one may be 
engaged in, the rhythmic way of doing it is the easiest 
as well as the most graceful. 

Pythagoras, who lived some six hundred and fifty 
years before Christ, and is considered one of the great- 
est of early mathematicians, believed that the universe 
was created by music. It is said he taught that not 
the ear, but mathematics, should be the guide in music. 
He was apparently one of the first Greeks to teach 
the music of the spheres, and had a scale in which 
the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, 
and Saturn corresponded to the notes E, F, G, A, B, 
C, and D, of which the Sun formed the middle or 
the controlling note; thus we can see that the music 
of 2500 years ago was, in one sense, derived from 
the heavens, and that heavenly bodies wxre used as 
symbols of musical sounds. Unquestionably Greece 
laid the foundation of her civilisation in music, and 
the other Muses constituted different degrees of the 
one great fundamental note that ruled through all 
from first to last. 

It is music that comes through man's ear in sound, 
and it is music that comes through man's eye in colour. 
Musical sound vibration and musical colour vibration 
underlie all nature, and give beauty to all life. Take 
music and colour out of the world and we have a 
dead world, a world without a soul. The nation that 
is devoid of the musical sense, so that it neither cre- 
ates nor loves music, has lost its soul. And the in- 
dividual who has not awakened to a love of music 
and colour has not yet found his soul. We feel 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES ii 

music and colour far more than we see or hear them. 
The greatest beauty of sound or colour is a revelation 
to the soul of man rather than something derived 
through his sense nature. Greece was a great nation 
so long as she continued to use the divine principles 
of rhythm, melody, and harmony in everything she 
felt, thought, and did. From the time she began to 
lose these principles, there came a decline. But the 
spirit which once animated the Greek people did not 
die; it lives on, and will continue to live on until 
there shall come a civilisation even greater than that 
of the Greeks. As Jesus was a prophecy of what man 
must become, so Greece was a prophecy of what the 
whole world shall yet become. 

When we write of the music of the past, let us re- 
member that music is without beginning or ending, 
that it lives in the heart of the Infinite, that the de- 
mand can never exceed the supply. Moreover, the 
world can have the music it desires if it is willing to 
seek it. But the things that heart and mind desire 
are not brought tnto being without an effort on the 
part of those desiring them. We must bring of what 
we have to bear on that which we desire to have; 
for everything we receive, there must be something 
in the nature of an equivalent given. We can have 
what heart and mind desire, when we use heart and 
mind and bodily effort to get it. It was Plato who 
said: "The soul which has seen the most of truth 
shall come to the birth as a philosopher, or artist, or 
musician, or lover." It is through seeing the most 
of truth and expressing all that we are able to see 
that there comes the new birth, the new zeal, the new 
knowledge. Love music for the love of music; love 
beauty for the love of beauty, and music and beauty 



12 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

will become redoubled, as it were, in your life. If we 
are going to secure from life all that is highest and 
best, then we must bring to life all that is highest and 
best. We cannot barter the unlovely for the lovely, 
or the unwholesome for that which is wholesome, the 
discordant for the harmonious. No, it is like that 
attracts like. Give all the melody that is in your life 
to the world, and a still greater melody will flow back 
into it. Give to the world the best, and give only the 
best, then shall you receive the best. 

With the decline of music in Greece, there was a 
long period when the progress of music seemed to have 
come to an end. The world came under the thraldom 
of the Roman Empire, and the Muses, save in the 
most external way, failed to prove of interest to the 
people. With the coming of materialism into any 
country, the death-knell of beauty is sounded. The 
Roman Empire was noted for its building of wonder- 
ful roads, and the carrying on of great wars; but it 
paid little attention to all that goes to make life truly 
great or beautiful. True it is that, under some of the 
emperors of Rome, art flourished more than it did 
under others. With the advent of Christianity as 
the national religion of the Roman Empire, it might 
be thought that the Christian Gospel of peace and good- 
will would have brought with it something of the true 
music of life; but there is little evidence that the 
change from Roman barbarism to Christian civilisa- 
tion wrought any marked change in the art of the day. 
Undoubtedly all the persecutions and the curtailments 
of the religious rights of the early Christians had 
much to do with keeping them from expressing them- 
selves through music. There were doubtless many 
other reasons besides this. The majority of them 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 13 

were made up of the poorer classes and it is doubtful 
whether, even under ordinary circumstances, they 
would have been able to have expressed themselves 
through music. It was during the fourth century 
A.D. that Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, made the first 
real effort to produce Church music, and he seems to 
have met with considerable success ; later, Pope Greg- 
ory the Great carried on still further the work begun 
by Ambrose. But comparatively little of what might 
be called good music was produced until the middle or 
end of the fourteenth century. From that time on the 
growth of music is a continuous one, and Italy takes 
a very prominent part; not only did she lay a new 
foundation of musical art, but she has continued on 
through the centuries without any break in her career, 
so that I think it may truthfully be said that the 
knowledge and love of music possessed by the Italians 
has not been exceeded by the people of any other na- 
tion in modern times. 

Palestrina, born 1528, may be said to be the first 
great master of Italian music. Certainly he was the 
greatest master of the pure old choral style. He ac- 
complished far more during his life than any other pre- 
vious com.poser had done, for he wrote many masses, 
hymns, madrigals, and a large variety of other works. 
Palestrina represents, in his music, the perfection, the 
flower, and the fruit of all that had gone before his 
time. We might say that not only does he sum up 
all that was highest and best that was before his time, 
but that he opened the way for, and gave a new 
impetus to, music. He resembles the painter, Fra An- 
gelico, in the reverence, the love, and the devotion 
that he put into his religious music. After Palestrina 
comes Henry Purcell, of England, who probably in- 



14 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

fluenced England more, in a musical way, than any 
one single English composer has ever done. In his 
music he had the faculty of exciting practically any 
kind of emotion through what might be called his 
magical modes of expression. So that he stands with 
the great minds of England, and it is doubtful if any 
of the songs of the present will appeal to the English 
ear or sympathies to the same degree as do the de- 
lightful, as well as beautiful, old songs of Purcell. 
After Purcell follows Johann Sebastian Bach, a very 
giant among composers. From his time forward Ger- 
many takes rank with Italy as one of the two greatest 
music-producing countries of the world. Bach may 
be called the real father of German music, not that 
the Germans had not produced beautiful music before 
his time, but he laid music on an enduring foundation, 
and he, more than any one else, embodies what a mu- 
sical writer calls the whole essence of the German 
nature. He was not only a composer of the highest 
order, but was a great organist as well. He wrote for 
the instrumental musician, unlike Handel, who was 
born near the same time and who wrote chiefly for 
the voice. Bach stands supreme as the most intel- 
lectual composer of all modern times. He carries 
perfection and variety of form to such a degree, that 
it is questionable whether all the great composers who 
came after him did not profit more through the study 
of his music than from that of any other composer. 
Some day the world at large will probably realise 
how much it is indebted to Bach for laying the art 
foundations of modern music and making it possible 
for those who followed him to profit by what he had 
accomplished. 

After Bach there came a succession of bright stars 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 15 

in the musical firmament. The great Handel, writer 
of the "Messiah" and other wonderful oratorios, in- 
fluenced England in a musical way as no other com- 
poser has ever been able to do; and England owes a 
debt of gratitude to him that can never be fully 
repaid. After Handel we have Haydn, whose greatest 
work, "The Creation," is filled with religious fervour. 
The Italians called him the "god of instrumental mu- 
sic," and compared his "sacred and splendid music" 
to the "sun in the Temple of Harmony." What Han- 
del did for the development of the singing voice, and 
Haydn for the progress of instrumental music, 
Gluck did for the unfolding of the opera. Gluck 
was to the opera of his day what Wagner is to the 
opera of our day. But among all composers of great 
music, there is one who stands unique, as being in 
the closest communion with the very soul of music 
itself, born a composer and a musician, the divine 
Mozart. Though his life on earth was a brief one, 
he composed in those few years not only a greater 
quantity of music than any other musician before or 
since, but also produced greater varieties of rhythm 
and harmony than had been known up to his time. 
He gave to the world in his early years what other 
great masters of music frequently have accomplished 
only after years of mature experience. Mozart was 
like a meteor, flashing across the heavens, lighting up 
everything in its path. If ever music was inspired, 
Jiis music was. 

The lover of music cannot help being Impressed, in 
listening to the first few bars of Mozart's most beau- 
tiful music, with the idea that the composer knew 
the end of his composition from the beginning. It 
would seem that almost before he took a pen to write 



i6 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

down a single note the whole composition was already 
written in his mind; and, when he had finished his 
work, it was the perfected production of the master 
who did not need to rewrite or in any material way 
change the music which flowed spontaneously from 
his soul. I do not think that it is fair to compare 
Bach with Haydn, Mozart with Beethoven, Gluck 
with Wagner, or Schubert with Mendelssohn. Each 
one of these great masters was great in his own way. 
Each had his message for the world. Why should 
we try to exalt one at the expense of another any 
more than we should try to attribute more glory to 
one star than to another? Each star is beautiful in 
its own way. Each star has an originality all its own. 
It is not by making comparisons that we shall estab- 
lish the truth, but rather by giving to each one due 
credit for all that he has done. I do not think that 
we can compare Mozart with any of the other great 
composers. There may have been others w^ho have 
done their work quite as well as he did, but when 
we consider what he accomplished in a few short 
years, we are filled with wonder at the versatility 
he displayed to such a marked extent, and at the great 
amount of his musical productions. Mozart, in the 
musical world, for the amount of work that he was 
able to do, is what Rubens was in the world of paint- 
ing. Both seem to have done far more than could 
be expected from any one single life. It is not neces- 
sary to comment on his productions, for all lovers of 
music know what he has done. The one comment 
to make is, that we cannot have too much of the kind 
of music that Mozart composed. 

Just a little later comes Beethoven, another of the 
great tone prophets of music. His influence on the 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 17 

music world has been of the most lasting order. There 
is a strength and a beauty and, at times, a wonderful 
simplicity in his music ; doubtless in the ages to come, 
Beethoven will rank as one of the greatest composers 
of all times. 

After Beethoven came Schubert, who sang nature's 
sun songs while finding life very difficult to live, and 
who was, nevertheless, able to impart to the world 
more of the joy and gladness of life, more of the 
simplicity and beauty of it, than almost any other 
composer who ever lived. 

Mendelssohn, too, had something akin to Schubert, 
although his music might come under the head of a 
more classical order. Schubert's music seemed to 
gush spontaneously from his mind; to him the spirit 
was more than the form, but Mendelssohn was as 
particular of beauty of form in music as Tennyson 
was of beauty of form in verse. 

Coming down to our own period, one man stands 
pre-eminent as one of the greatest masters of all 
time in musical composition — Richard Wagner. He 
was a star of the first magnitude, and his music, not- 
withstanding the attention it has already received, is 
not yet appreciated at its true value because it is not 
yet fully understood. Neither Wagner nor his music 
is more than partially comprehended at present. The 
world needs perspective. In the years to come the 
man and his music will both take a higher place than 
has yet been accorded them. A man who writes such 
music cannot be considered an ordinary man; what 
we might term his weakness, may in a larger light 
be considered his strength. In a letter he writes to 
Mathilde Wesendonck he says: "Nothing catches my 
eyes, the objects, the scenes to which my eyes are 



i8 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

attracted, or might be attracted, might be the greatest 
in the world, but do not amuse me, and are indifferent 
to me. My eyes now only serve me to distinguish 
day from night, light from darkness. It is really a 
death of the external world to me, and of me to it. 
I see only internal images, which try to realise them- 
selves by sounds." Elsewhere in another letter from 
Paris in 1861 he says: "There ought to be in us an 
internal sense which becomes clear and active where 
all the other senses, directed outward, sleep and dream. 
It is precisely when I no longer see or hear anything 
distinctly that this sense is most active and is a pro- 
ducer of calm; I can give it no other term. Is this 
calm the same as the plastic calm? I do not know; 
all I do know is that it acts from within to without; 
through it I feel myself to be the centre of the world." 
The people who have read his autobiography and find 
in it what they call his supreme selfishness, should 
take into consideration the fact that Wagner knew 
that he had more to give to the world than the world 
could possibly give to him. The message and the giv- 
ing of that message was the one great purpose of his 
life. Anything which in any way interfered with it 
and held him back in the giving of it, was resented 
by him. He was a man labouring for the good of 
humanity, and yet humanity put all manner of obsta- 
cles in the way of his accomplishing that good. I 
believe he was as all unconscious of what people call 
his selfishness, as he was unconscious, at times, of 
everything but light and darkness in the outer world ; 
the real Wagner was so intensely subjective that his 
outer life was the incident rather than the reality. 
But the one dominant thing in his life was to do the 
work that he felt himself inspired to do; his inner 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 19 

senses were all so acute that, at times, it would almost 
seem that Wagner not only listened to but had caught 
something of the music of the spheres. Critics make 
a great mistake when they say, as many of them do, 
that Wagner's music is essentially sensuous. In reality 
it is nothing of the kind. Wagner in the Ring, in 
*Tannhauser," and *The Flying Dutchman," tries to 
bring out in a faithful way things that have their 
rise in the elemental and then work up through stress 
and storm to the higher planes of being. In the 
doing of this, if he is to prove faithful to his trust, 
he must be true to all the different phases of life that 
he encounters. Wagner impresses me much as the 
painter Turner does. Turner used, in his painting, 
dark colours to lay, as it were, the foundation of his 
work; then he passes up through one colour and de- 
gree of colour after another, until he reaches the 
light. So Wagner, in his work, faithfully exemplifies 
each stage in the development of life, from the ele- 
mental to the purified soul, from the earth to the 
heaven, from darkness to light. 

Music has had a glorious past, but the greatest music 
is yet to come. With the full realisation on the part 
of the great composer that he has consciously attuned 
himself to the Source of all music, there will come 
the heavenly melodies and harmonies of which the 
earth has as yet only begun to dream ; but dreams do 
come true, and when the hearts and minds of men 
desire still more beautiful and wonderful music than 
that which they have as yet received, then, because 
of such demand, will come the supply. Said Cardinal 
Newman: "There are but seven notes In the scale; 
make them fourteen, yet what a slender outfit for so 
vast an enterprise ! What science brines so much out 



20 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

of so little? Out of what poor elements does some 
great master in it create his new world! Shall we 
say that all this exuberant inventiveness is a mere 
ingenuity or trick of art, like some game of fashion 
of the day, without reality, without meaning? . . . 
Is it possible that that inexhaustible evolution and 
disposition of notes, so rich yet so simple, so intricate 
yet so regulated, so various yet so majestic, should 
be a mere sound, which is gone and perishes? Can 
it be that those mysterious stirrings of the heart, and 
keen emotions, and strange yearnings after we know 
not what, and awful impressions from we know not 
w^hence, should be wrought in us by what is unsub- 
stantial, and comes and goes, and begins and ends in 
itself? It is not so; it cannot be. No; they have 
escaped from some higher sphere; they are the out- 
pourings of eternal harmony in the medium of cre- 
ated sound ; they are echoes from our Home ; they are 
the voices of Angels, or the Magnificat of Saints, or 
the living laws of Divine Governance, or the Divine 
Attributes; something are they besides themselves, 
which we cannot compass, which we cannot utter, 
though mortal man, and one perhaps not other- 
wise distinguished above his fellows, has the gift of 
eliciting them." 

Cardinal Newman's tribute to music is not an over- 
estimated one, as many may perhaps think, but an 
expression of his inmost feelings, the expression of 
one who was a true lover of music. I doubt very 
much whether any devoted lover of music by the 
spoken or written word can give any full or complete 
expression to the wonderful influence music exerts 
upon his life, or to the added meaning it gives to all 
his experiences. How often we find thoughts and 



MUSIC OF OTHER CLIMES 21 

words inadequate when we try to give expression to 
our deepest feelings! The fact is that we seem al- 
most to lose something of the real value when we try- 
to interpret what we feel through the written page 
or the spoken word. Just as I suppose the painter 
must feel when he sees new wonders of beauty and 
colour in nature, and tries to depict them on his can- 
vas, and finds that his pigment colours are in no way 
adequate to express the beauty of colour he is able 
to see. The whole object of life is this effort that we 
are constantly making to articulate the inarticulate; 
to express what seems inexpressible; to reveal, as it 
were, all the inner mysteries of being. To a degree 
we succeed, but in a greater degree we seem to fail. 
Only little by little does life render up her secrets, 
and then only to the seeker. But to him who con- 
tinues the search will come the sure reward, because 
there is nothing hidden but that shall be revealed, 
and revelation will follow revelation. One height 
gained will show still greater heights to be attained. 
There is no final; there is no ultimate. Progress is 
eternal. 



CHAPTER III 

ENERGY — MOTION — VIBRATION 

"Oh, thou beautiful 
And unimaginable ether! and 
Ye multiplying masses of increased 
And still increasing lights! What are ye? What 
Is this blue wilderness of interminable 
Air, where ye roll along as I have seen 
The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden?" 

— Byron. 

"First the flaming red 
Sprang void forth; the tawny orange next, 
And next dehcious yellow; by whose side 
Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green. 
Then the pure blue that swells autumnal skies, 
Ethereal played; and then, of sadder hue 
Emerged the deeper indigo (as when 
The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost), 
While the last gleamings of refracted light 
Died in the fainting violet away." — Thomson. : 

Man is living in a universe of ceaseless vibration, 
but is conscious physically of such vibration only in 
a minute way. He is affected through his sense of 
hearing by something over ten octaves of sound vibra- 
tion, and through his sense of sight by one octave 
of light and colour vibration. There are countless 
billions of vibratory waves of electricity, heat, light, 
and colour, etc., that apparently make no impression 
whatever upon either his senses or his physical body. 
Billions of vibratory waves are constantly passing 
through his body, yet he is all unconscious of what 
is taking place. With his mind he may determine 
mathematically the number of these vibratory waves, 
but apparently he is only slightly attuned to them 

23 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 23 

and feels comparatively little of their action in his 
physical life. Vibration on every plane of being dif- 
fers in degree but not in kind; no matter whether 
we call it molecular, atomic, or spiritual. All three 
may differ in degree, but not in kind. It is the same 
vibration from the highest spiritual plane of being 
to the lowest plane of form. All vibration is the 
result of energy in motion. Energy in rhythmic, 
vibratory motion has produced every form in the 
universe ; and energy in discordant motion is destruct- 
ive of all form. Different degrees of vibration affect 
us in various ways and degrees. Eighteen hundred 
volts of electricity will destroy human life, while two 
million volts passing through the body of man seem 
to produce no harmful effect. 

In the act of hearing, somewhere between twenty- 
five and forty per second of molecular vibratory waves 
marks the beginning of the average man's power to 
hear; and somewhere between thirty and forty thou- 
sand waves per second marks the end where the limit 
of hearing is reached. It is to be noted, however, that 
some people are more delicately attuned to both sound 
and colour vibration than others. They begin to hear 
at a lower rate of vibration and continue to hear the 
higher sounds, and see more wonder of colour long 
after others have ceased to sense them. There is no 
question that the great painter sees far more colour 
in the varying hues, tints, and shades that he uses 
than the person who is not in sympathetic relation 
to them; or, I might say, than the one who is not so 
highly attuned to them. Some writer has said, that 
"colour is sound made visible and that sound is colour 
made audible." Just as musical sounds differ in sound, 
pitch, and quality, so do colours differ in three re- 



24 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

spects — hue, tint, and shade; aUhough sound is the 
result of molecular vibration while colour is the result 
either of atomic or electron vibration. The scientific 
theory of molecular vibration is that it is not the air 
which is moved, but the molecules in the atmosphere — 
that any vibratory body causes them to vibrate in the 
same manner. Perhaps a bell will illustrate the mean- 
ing: when the gong of a bell strikes, there is a vibra- 
tion set up which disturbs all the molecules in the 
bell; these, in turn, produce a vibration of those out- 
side, and these, in turn, impinge upon other molecules 
farther away from the bell, and thus vibratory waves 
are set up, which undoubtedly extend far beyond the 
power of the ear to hear them. The vibratory waves 
set up in the bell radiate, as do the rays of the sun, 
in every possible direction. Each molecule communi- 
cates the impulse it has received to the next, and, 
having done this, returns to its normal state of re- 
pose. With electricity, heat, and light, the same proc- 
ess takes place, but in different degrees. A molecule 
is an aggregation of atoms. Until recently the belief 
has been that the atom was the smallest conceivable 
particle of substance in the universe; that the whole 
visible universe was a grand aggregation of atoms. 
With the discovery of radium there came a deeper 
unfolding of the secrets of life, and the electron took 
its place as underlying the atom, and man went one 
step farther toward unravelling the mysteries of life. 
It is to be noticed in all such steps, however, that 
the tendency of science is from the visible toward the 
invisible. Energy in motion produces all vibration, 
but we do not know what causes the energy or what 
sets it in motion. All atomic or electron vibration is 
set up by the activities of the sun, but of the causes 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 25 

lying back of these activities we know comparatively 
nothing. We know that electricity, heat, and light 
are the result of energy in motion, and we believe that 
this energy produces atomic waves, and that the dif- 
ferent degrees of these set up among the atoms pro- 
duce the phenomena of all three and the different de- 
grees of length and velocity of these waves produce 
the three different phases of the phenomena of elec- 
tricity, heat, and light. Doubtless, we shall yet come 
to know that besides molecular and atomic, there is 
also electron vibration; but what the latter vibration 
may produce no man can as yet definitely say. We 
know so little about the whole subject of vibration and 
the various phenomena produced by it, and there is so 
much yet to be known, that the deeper we go into 
the matter the more wonderful does it all become. 
Vibration, from first to last, is a unity of motion and 
must be considered as such, although in its mani- 
festation it becomes a trinity of molecular, atomic, 
and electron vibration producing varying degrees of 
wave lengths and differing in velocity of movement. 
There is so much to be observed in common between 
sound waves and colour waves that eventually it will 
become a thoroughly accepted scientific belief that 
there is a continuation by varying octaves from the 
lowest to the highest sound, and from that on, from 
the first colour — red — to the last one of bright violet. 
It will consequently be found that the vibration con- 
tinued beyond the bright violet (when man has be- 
come attuned to a higher rate of vibration) will dis- 
close itself as the beginning of a new octave of colour, 
and that man's hearing will also be able to translate 
into music the higher sounds which, as yet, have not 
become musical to his ear; still further octaves of 



26 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

sound will be added to his hearing, and further oc- 
taves of colour to his seeing. 

There is a very close analogy between sound and 
light. For instance, both possess the same properties 
of being refracted. We say certain surfaces absorb so 
much light and reflect so much back. It is exactly the 
same with sound; a smooth or polished wall or ceil- 
ing will reflect a part of the sound back again, while 
curtains, carpets, etc., will have a tendency to absorb 
to a greater or lesser degree, according to their vary- 
ing surfaces. While every tone travels through the 
air with equal rapidity, each tone has its own length. 
Exactly the same is true concerning colour vibration. 
A sounding-board in a piano, the woodwork in a vio- 
lin, the roof of the mouth, and the resonant head 
chambers used in voice production, all act to give in- 
creased volume in sound production, but do not change 
the wave length or cause greater velocity of movement. 
Resonance, however, means greater volume of sound, 
and because of increased volume there will be in- 
creased molecular vibration in the atmosphere. 

Man's physical senses bring him into the closest 
relationship with his outer environment. His five 
senses may be summed up as differentiations of one 
sense, namely, that of touch. Touch, in the first de- 
gree, brings man into the closest relation to material 
things. Next we find that various things coming in 
touch with the palate act on the sense of taste. Again, 
by the way in which different perfumes and odours 
come in touch with the olfactory nerve, the sense of 
smell is made evident. In a still greater degree, by 
the way that atmospheric vibration comes in touch 
with the tympanum or drum of the ear, the sense of 
hearing is affected, and the last or most remote degree 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 2y 

of touch Is the way that colour or light vibration 
comes in touch with the optic nerve of the eye. It 
must therefore be evident that four of the senses — 
viz., taste, smell, hearing, and seeing — are only dif- 
ferent degrees of the one vital sense we call touch; 
but it is with the sense of hearing and seeing that we 
have most to do in this book. There are two peculiar- 
ities that I should like to make clear concerning the 
sense of sight and the sense of hearing. The eye re- 
ceives pictures from without, and, as a general thing, 
the pictures it receives affect man's mind far more 
than they do his feelings. Sight is the sense of touch 
that is farthest removed from man, and his life is 
usually not nearly as much disturbed by what he sees 
as by what he hears. In other words, seeing is more 
of a mental process than any one or all of the other 
senses. Hearing, however, seems to be more of a 
process of feehng. Let me illustrate it in this way: 
we might see a building burning at a distance without 
our feelings being affected to any marked degree by 
it. But if we were close to it and could hear the 
cries of distress coming from those unable to escape, 
not only would our minds be quickened, but all our 
feelings would be aroused. With the aid of our eyes 
we take in pictures of objective life. With the aid 
of our ears we come in touch with man's more sub- 
jective life. Objective life tends to awaken man's men- 
tal faculties, causing him to think and to reason; but 
it does not necessarily stir his deepest feelings. People 
who have lost their hearing and who no longer hear 
the harmonies of sound, usually become irritable, while 
people who have lost the power to see and yet have 
retained their hearing, are usually both gentle and kind 
in their natures. I do not mean to say that there are 



28 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

not exceptions to this rule, because one may have lost 
the outer hearing and have kept the sense of the inner, 
and have all the sweetness and gentleness that is to 
be found among the blind. We might mention as an 
illustration of this inner hearing that Beethoven, while 
of a somewhat irritable temperament, which was hot 
improved by the loss of hearing, nevertheless was 
able to hear with his inner ear, and produced more 
of his beautiful and remarkable music after he had 
practically lost the use of his outer hearing. Dr. Nich- 
olas Saunderson, who lived in the early part of the 
last century, although blind, was one of the most cele- 
brated mathematicians of his time, and he said: "Per- 
sons who are deprived of sight are generally blessed 
with a fine ear. Hence, perhaps it arises that music 
is a favourite study with the blind." "The doctor 
was a singular instance of this delicacy of ear. He 
could readily distinguish to the fifth part of a note, 
and by his performance on the flute, which he had 
learned as an amusement in his younger years, dis- 
covered a genius for music that would probably have 
appeared as wonderful as his excellence in mathemat- 
ics, had he cultivated the art with equal application." 
In the development, then, of the mind and body, 
through the use of music and colour, one must take 
into account how colour affects the mind, and how 
hearing affects the emotions; and it will be through 
the union of both that the greatest development will 
come both to mind and body. 

Very often doctors recommend a change of scene 
to patients who are not improving under their care, 
advising them to go to different places in the hope that 
their health may be restored. Now, if a change of 
scene is oftentimes necessary to restore health, how 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 29 

much greater must be the result arising from a har- 
mony of sounds coming in touch with and arousing 
one's inmost feehngs! For feehng is the dynamic 
that moves all Hfe. We are what we are far more 
because of what we have felt than because of what 
we have thought. It is through our deepest feeling 
that we come into vital touch with God and man. 

I have elsewhere stated that the body of man, when 
in a state of harmonious vibration, is also in a state 
of perfect health and strength. This physical vibration 
is, without doubt, dependent on harmonious thoughts 
and feelings ; therefore, that which produces the great- 
est harmony of mind and feeling must, of a necessity, 
be the greatest agent not only in restoring mental 
poise and physical health, but also in keeping a person 
harmoniously balanced. But vibration may be either 
a means of building up or of destroying. The story 
told in the Old Testament about Joshua and his chosen 
followers marching seven times around a walled city, 
each one of the number blowing a trumpet, brings out 
the thought that it was through the united, rhythmic 
vibration of all the trumpets blown in unison that the 
walls were overthrown. The people who believe in 
the infallibility of Bible records look upon the over- 
throwing of the walls of Jericho as nothing short of a 
miracle ; while people who do not accept the letter of 
either the Old or the New Testament, look upon it 
rather in the nature of a Hebrew myth. I feel quite 
sure that some time in the near future science will 
demonstrate the possibility of an entirely different 
theory. 

We know that the Egyptians were in possession of 
a wonderful knowledge of the secrets of nature, and 
that Moses was thoroughly versed in Egyptian occult 



30 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

lore, and that he, In turn, was enabled to impart this 
knowledge to Joshua. The overthrowing of the walls 
was the result of a direct molecular wave action, one 
produced by the trumpets sounding at some definite 
range of pitch so as to cause all the molecules in the 
wall to respond, and the constant repetition of the 
sound brought about the destruction of the walls. 
Perhaps this could be best illustrated by an army of 
men crossing a bridge, all keeping step. At first there 
would be a slightly perceptible movement of the bridge, 
but from the first movement on it would become an 
ever-increasing one, until without the breaking of the 
step, in many cases, the bridge would be destroyed. 
We are only beginning to understand a little of this 
great question of vibration, but that little shows how 
wonderful is the power with w'hich we are dealing. 

I know there are many who will assert that music 
and colour vibration can have no direct action upon 
man's physical body, and therefore can possess no real 
value for the cure of purely physical diseases. I wish 
to state, however, that there is a direct physical action 
resulting from both sound and colour vibration. Let 
me illustrate this: as I sit in my study, with doors 
and windows closed, I am conscious of many sounds 
rising from the street below. Now all these sounds 
can only reach my hearing through molecular sound 
waves. Those waves before they can be translated into 
sound by my ear must penetrate and pass through 
what we call solid matter, and set up molecular vibra- 
tion in the very room in which I am sitting. Further- 
more, they must set up the same vibration in the wood, 
glass, or walls throug'h which they pass. Now, if this 
be the case, as scientists affirm it is, is it reasonable 
to suppose that this molecular vibration exerts its in- 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 3 1 

fluence only on my ear, and does not extend to the 
whole physical organism? No, the body of man is 
more fully alive and in a far more rapid state of vi- 
bration than wood, glass, or stone, and for that reason 
molecular sound vibration must exert even a greater 
influence upon it, and there cannot be the slightest 
question but that the molecules of the body are af- 
fected to at least the same, or even a greater, degree 
than those in the wood, glass, or stone. I assert, 
therefore, that there is a direct physical action pro- 
duced by molecular vibration upon the body of man, 
and of whatever quality the initial vibration may have 
been, whether it was rhythmic and melodious or un- 
rhythmic and discordant, the original vibratory wave 
is followed by exactly the same kind of waves from 
first to last. For instance, if one should ring a silver 
bell, the only difference produced by its sound to per- 
sons standing at different distances from it would 
be that the one who was nearest to the bell would 
hear a greater volume of sound than the one who was 
farthest from it, but the silver quality of the sound 
would be exactly the same to both. An iron bell, if 
sounded under the same conditions, would convey to 
the same listeners a harsh iron sound or tone. What 
I desire to show by this is, we know that the melody 
and harmony of sound vibration must of a necessity 
produce melody and harmony so long as that vibra- 
tion continues ; therefore, since melodious and harmo- 
nious vibrations impinge upon the ear and produce 
identical molecular vibrations in the body, it follows 
that these harmonious molecular vibrations of the body 
would later become fully expressed in physical health 
and strength, while inharmonious molecular vibrations 
would give exactly the opposite result. People might 



32 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

retort by saying that the musical vibration that would 
set up harmony of vibration in the physical would only 
have, at best, a momentary or passing effect, and there--, 
fore could not be of permanent value. In reply to 
this I would say that constant repetition of musical 
vibration would tend to eventually establish a perma- 
nent condition of harmonious physical vibrations. It 
is a well known fact that once you have established 
a habit of body or mind, it becom.es easier to live that 
habit than to depart from it; therefore, for such rea- 
sons I maintain that once you systematically set up 
rhythmic, harmonious, molecular vibrations in the 
body, it will be far easier to retain that condition than 
to depart from it. Sometimes when one is listening 
to vocal or instrumental music a note is sounded or a 
chord struck which sends a vibratory thrill through- 
out the whole body. Without doubt, the note or chord 
made its appeal to something very deep in our nature, 
to something in the subconscious mind of the past, or 
to some deep passion or emotion of the soul; there- 
fore, it Is obvious, if one note or chord can set up a 
vibration, as it were, involuntarily, how much more 
deeply might we be physically affected by vibrations 
consciously prolonged with a view to the regeneration 
or re-vitalising of mind and body. There must be 
persistently directed effort to the full awakening of 
the highest as well as the deepest of the soul's emo- 
tions, for we live at our greatest when we feel the 
most. When mind and body vibrate to soul-feeling, 
all is well, for the melody of life comes only from 
within. The soul alone can build our minds and 
fashion our bodies; the soul alone can give melody 
to mind and symmetry to body. I maintain, then, 
that all molecular vibration sets up an action of the 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 33 

molecules of the body similar to that produced in the 
first instance ; that harmonious musical vibration pro- 
duces exactly the same kind of vibration in man's 
physical organism, and therefore no one can ques- 
tion but that music does act directly on the body 
of man. 

Now let us go a step farther. Does colour produce 
a similar action? We are told that as the rays of 
light touch the optic nerve, we see. Now, according 
to the length and rapidity of these waves, we see dif- 
ferent colours. Scientists tell us that light waves re- 
sult from the vibration of atoms. As the atoms are 
so much smaller than molecules, they are not affected 
by the atmosphere in the same way as are the latter. 
The vibrations of electricity, heat, and light are in- 
finitely more rapid. The same question, therefore, con- 
fronts us in relation to atomic, as to molecular vibra- 
tion. Does such vibration coming in touch with the 
optic nerve end with that contact alone, or does it 
exert an influence on every atom of man's body? 
Without doubt, that which affects the part must act 
equally on the whole ; whether the vibration be molecu- 
lar or atomic, the whole body is affected, and it is 
only a question of degree, not of kind. A thorough 
investigation will ultimately show that there is even 
an electron vibration which has its influence upon the 
body. We know so little as yet concerning vibration, 
and there is so much to be known, that even in our 
wildest flights of imagination we cannot conceive of 
the full effect vibration has had on life, nor the still 
greater effects it will have when we consciously come 
to understand its use aright and so obtain from it 
still greater results. Now I come to what I consider 
of far more importance than the explanations just 



34 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

given of the action of molecular and atomic vibration 
upon the body, namely, the action produced upon one's 
feelings. A note struck on a musical instrument will 
sometimes cause a note in another instrument to re- 
spond to it, and as a result a new vibration is set up. 
In the same way rhythm and melody vibration come 
in touch with the rhythm and melody in the life of 
man, and new vibrations are set up. It first of all 
reaches the soul of the man who is receptive to it, 
and extending to his mind, and then to his body, pro- 
duces exactly the same quality of vibration on all three 
planes of being. This vibration continues on its outer 
movement and touching the bodies, minds, and souls 
of other people, it affects them to a certain degree in 
the same manner as the first individual was affected. 
It is thus, then, music awakens man's inmost feelings, 
and either sets up in his life or calls out into expres- 
sion the rhythm, melody, and harmony that poten- 
tially exist within the life of every man that cometh 
into the world. Music and colour can, therefore, be 
used to establish the conscious reality of one's soul, 
to renew the mind, and to make whole the body. 
They can prove a perfect salvation for man, a salva- 
tion from sin and sorrow of mind, disease and death 
of the body, and an uplift to his soul. For when man 
becomes attuned to celestial music, he will pass from 
under the bondage of the discordant, inharmonious 
vibrations wiiich are destructive to all form, and come 
under the influence of music and colour vibrations 
which are eternal. 

Change of thought or change of mmd may have 
some renewing effect upon the life, but the inner glow 
of joy or love will make for a new mind, and a new 
consciousness of life in a way that could never be 



ENERGY— MOTION— VIBRATION 35 

attained by man's mentality alone. I believe that music 
may be used not only for the healing of the body, 
but also for the regeneration of the mind. Music 
comes nearer to the heart side of life than do any 
of the other arts, and for this reason its influence is 
greater. There is something else to be taken into 
consideration concerning the fact that we hear more 
than ten octaves of sound while seeing less than one 
octave of colour. This would apparently show a 
greater development through our hearing than 
through our seeing. That colour has to play an im- 
portant part in the healing of the sick there can be 
little doubt, although, at present, its influence is sec- 
ondary to that of sound. 

Eventually it may be proved that there are as many 
octaves of colour as there are octaves of sound, and, 
in the process of time, new octaves of sound and colour 
will be disclosed to man, but this will only come to 
pass when man becomes far more highly developed 
than he is at present. The more progress he makes in 
the evolution of his own life, the more will he become 
attuned to all the voices of nature. With the un- 
folding of his own nature there will come an ever 
new and ever unfolding development in the harmonies 
of colour and sound. All nature will respond to him, 
will sing him new songs, and paint him new scenes 
with music and colour; in other words, this whole 
world in which we live is not yet fully created, but is 
rather in the process of creation. God is using man 
to create a new earth that will truly represent the 
heaven that lives in man's highest or spiritual con- 
sciousness, for "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither hath entered into the heart of man'' a con- 
ception of the glories that God has prepared for him. 



36 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

but that glory has to be worked for before it can be 
entered into and appreciated. 

"There's music in the sighing of a reed, 
There's music in the gushing of a rill, 
There's music in all things, if men had ears; 
Then earth is but the echo of the spheres." 

We are all engaged, whether we know it or not, in 
working out our own salvation. We have been pro- 
vided with a soul to feel, a mind to think, and a body 
to act with ; but only as we use our souls, our minds, 
and our bodies may it in all truth be said that we are 
working out a full and complete salvation. Perhaps 
we know something of the melody of life, but we do 
not yet understand the rhythm and harmony of it in 
the sense that we shall some day ; for we have hardly 
yet begun to enter into the joys and beauties of life 
that will eventually be revealed to the dwellers upon 
this earth.. 



CHAPTER IV 

MUSIC AND COLOUR TONES 

"For Nature beats in perfect time, 
And rounds with rhyme her every rune, 
Whether she work in land or sea, 
Or hide underground her alchemy. 
Thou canst not wave thy staff in air, 
Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 
But it carves the bow of beauty there, 
And the ripples in rhyme the oar forsake." 

— Emerson. 

"There is in souls a sympathy with sounds; 
And as the mind is pitched, the ear is pleased 
With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave; 
Some chord in unison with what we hear 
Is touched within us, and the heart replies. 
How soft the music of the village bells, 
Falling at intervals upon the ear 
In cadence sweet, now dying all away, 
Now pealing loud again and louder still 
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on.'* 

— COWPER. 

The great colour tone painters are undoubtedly able 
to perceive far more of colour than the rest of man- 
kind. Sometimes we think that they use their colours 
in an extreme way, but instead of this being true, 
without doubt they perceive colours in nature that they 
find it impossible to reproduce. I am inclined to think 
that the greatest colourist would say that the average 
person knows little or nothing concerning colour, or 
the harmonies produced by colour. People talk of 
fixed colours, and yet how little we know about fixed 
colours in nature. Many people have the idea that 
natural colours can be classified but with the seven 



38 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

colours of the spectrum we may have hundreds of 
thousands of changes. There is not an hour of the 
day but that every colour changes in hue, shade, and 
tint with the varying conditions of light. An object 
seen at one moment presents a colour that is very 
bright, at the next moment a cloud passing over the 
sky shows it a much darker shade. Man, in his use 
of pigments, has never been able to reproduce what 
would be called an absolutely pure colour. Some sur- 
faces so absorb light that we have little, if any, re- 
flected colour, and we call those surfaces black, brown, 
or grey. Others reflect back so much that we get 
the bright colours of red, orange or yellow, blue or 
green, and sometimes violet. Many people believe 
that they see all the colour that is to be seen, but even 
the spectrum discloses but a very little of the colour 
that exists, but yet is invisible to human sight. The 
colour sense is beyond all question a development in 
the life of man. Going back in the literature of an- 
cient days, we find little, if any, reference to colour, 
and the colours mentioned consist of only three or 
four at most. The Rigveda mentions the earth, but 
never uses the term green in connection with it, al- 
though the terms red and gold are used. The Vedas 
have no name for the colour of the sky, neither is 
one to be found in our own Bible. I believe it is only 
as a man's inner vision unfolds that colour is perceived, 
and as the inner life is developed man will continue to 
respond to new colour and new sound vibration. 

Colour possesses a power to absorb and retain heat, 
and it might be well to take this into consideration 
when using colour for decorating or furnishing rooms. 
Black not only absorbs the greatest amount of light, 
but also of heat; and white is at the other extreme, 



MUSIC AND COLOUR TONES 39 

reflecting back more of light and absorbing less of 
heat. Sir Humphry Davy gave the different heat- 
absorbing colours in this order : black, blue, green, red, 
yellow, white. All the different authorities give black 
and dark blue as having the greatest heat-absorbing 
power, and white and yellow as having the least. An 
experiment by Count Rumford shows that those sub- 
stances that part from heat with the greatest celerity 
are those which acquire it the most easily. Substances 
possess a specific influence on the absorption of heat 
caloric, both luminous and non-luminous, and they 
give off their caloric at the same rate that it is ab- 
sorbed. Some scientists state that colour sensation is 
a part of sound and gives the character or impression 
of the sound, and that all people feel it whether they 
consciously recognise it or not. In the same way, 
melodious sounds should give their character through 
impressions of harmonious combinations of pleasing 
colours. Again, colour sensations may be translated 
into their vocal sounds, thereby giving colour to 
spoken words. Perhaps it was because Wagner loved 
colour so much in life that we find so much colour in 
his music. It is doubtful if any other one composer 
has ever put so much and such a variety of colour 
into music as he did. We can well understand his 
saying, "I must have beauty, colour, and light,'' and 
that he received all three we have the evidence in his 
colour and beauty-inspiring music. Life is music and 
colour in expression. There is no music or colour 
apart from life. Both are states of consciousness. 
Some people in possession of little consciousness hear 
little of music and see little of colour. They have not 
come to the consciousness of either the one or the other. 
All colour and all music is within the soul, and there 



40 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

can be neither the one nor the other until the soul 
makes them. What anyone is able to see of colour 
or hear of music is because of his inner knowing, and 
the greater the inner knowledge the more he will hear 
of music, and the more he will see of colour in the 
outer world. The vibration set up in his own life 
through spiritual feeling and righteous thinking will 
cause him to become attuned to the great etheric vi- 
bration of the universe. The music of the spheres 
is no idle dream of the visionary. The soul that is 
one with the Over-Soul knows that everything in God's 
great universe makes music: the wind passing through 
the trees, the brooks running over the stones, water 
falling from a height — wherever there is rhythm there 
is melody, and rhythm enters into the constitution of 
all things. 

Rates of rhythmic vibration determine creation; 
rates of discordant vibration destroy all form. Each 
person may determine for himself whether the vibra- 
tion of his own life is going to be creative or destruct- 
ive, for each person can make either the rhythmic, 
harmonious vibration that makes for health, strength, 
and happiness, or the discordant vibration that makes 
for pain, disease, and death. I know that people will 
say they want harmonious vibration, but something 
more than wanting is necessary. Desire Is the initial 
move, but the person possessing the true or strong 
desire should be willing to work for the accomplish- 
ment of that particular end, because by work only 
can fulfilment be obtained. It Is, therefore, necessary 
to obtain as comprehensive a knowledge of the laws 
of life as one can, and then to live as nearly as possible 
in conformity with those laws. This constitutes the 
real wisdom of life, and wisdom is something more 



MUSIC AND COLOUR TONES 41 

than knowledge. Wisdom is both knowing and doing. 
Sometimes there are people who say that they must 
acquire a great deal of knowledge in order to be able 
to do what they wish, but the best way to acquire 
knowledge is always through doing. Saith the Master: 
"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the 
doctrine.'* Few of us need to know more, but most 
of us need to do more, and through the greater doing 
there will come the greater knowing. The ideals we 
have in mind are usually a long way ahead of our per- 
f orm.ance. The effort to live our ideals will bring with 
it still greater ideals. 

I have said that colour is a state of consciousness, 
but the mind uses its physical organisms for certain 
definite purposes. If we could see aright, we should 
know that the body of man is an exact physical coun- 
terpart of an invisible man, that we have an inner 
seeing and an inner hearing just as well as the outer 
seeing and the outer hearing, and that the outer is 
the perfect correspondence of the inner. The purely 
physical theory of seeing is this: there are different 
kinds of nerve elements in the retina of the eye which 
are affected by waves of light; the longest wave of 
light produces the colour red, because it is the longest 
and acts more strongly than do the shorter waves. 
As all these varying waves of light affect the eye, the 
various colours are seen : first red, then orange, yellow, 
green, blue, indigo, and last of all violet, the violet 
having the shortest light wave of all. These different 
etheric waves of light have no colour of themselves; 
it is only as the white ray is broken up that the dif- 
ferent waves touch the optic nerve, and according to 
their rapidity produce in different degrees something 
which we call colour. It is said that there are three 



42 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

different kinds of nerve elements. We might say that 
these elements correspond to the three primary colours, 
or the three primary notes in music. 

As this book is not intended for a scientific exposi- 
tion either of music or of colour, but rather to offer, 
suggestions as to how music and colour may be used 
for the benefit of the mind and body, the writer would 
advise anyone interested in either one or the other to 
make a study of the best scientific books to be found 
on sound or colour theories. He who expects to do 
the best work with music or colour should have as 
thorough a knowledge of both as it is possible for him 
to obtain. The one thing hoped for by the writer 
is that this book may awaken the minds of people 
so that eventually a thoroughly scientific way of using 
both musical and colour vibration for the healing of 
the mind and the body may be found. If in these lines 
you do not find the subject is defined fully or with 
scientific precision, it is largely because the writer is 
more interested in trying to point out a new way of 
life than to define or explain the scientific theories of 
sound and colour. So many books have been written 
on both that anyone can possess himself of knowledge 
as set forth by thoroughly competent scientific writers. 
My one object in touching on scientific theories of 
sound and colour is to cause an awakening of interest 
in the minds of many which I trust may prove of the 
greatest benefit to them in the end. 

I have written in this way in order to show that if 
we are ever to enter into a full appreciation of the 
value of music and colour, it will be because we have 
developed the harmonies of music and colour in our 
own lives. We become attuned to God's great uni- 
verse and form a harmonious part of it only through 



MUSIC AND COLOUR TONES 43 

the development of our highest spiritual conscious- 
ness, and upon such development must depend all the 
wonder and beauty of the great outer world, all the 
colour and all the music that exist throughout all na- 
ture. Each soul is a part of the whole, but it has been 
given to each soul to bring order out of chaos, to bring 
harmony out of discord, to bring strength out of weak- 
ness, to bring wisdom out of ignorance, to bring love 
out of hate, and in the doing of this, the part comes to 
understand its full relationship to the whole. Through 
its own giving, it becomes not only adjusted to its 
inner life, but also to its outer life, so that it receives 
from God and from man. It gives of the wholeness, 
the fulness, the completeness of life, and everything 
that is beautiful to be found in nature, or in man, will 
become disclosed to such a life. This is the way of life 
— the straight and narrow way of which the Nazarene 
told His disciples two thousand years ago. If we 
walk in this way, then we have everything to gain and 
nothing to lose. Each succeeding day will bring with 
it something of the newness, the wonder, and the 
beauty of life. 

The human body contains every instrument that is 
to be found in any great orchestra, but how few of us 
have learned to play, as it should be played, even one 
instrument of the many that we have in our posses- 
sion. How few of us produce rhythm, melody, and 
harmony in every-day life! Yet it is necessary that 
man should learn to use every instrument in a rhyth- 
mic, harmonious way. Life becomes truly great and 
wonderful only when we are living it to the full ; when 
we are absorbed in using our every power of mind 
and body to accomplish something definite, something 
creative in life. We get from life what we give to it. 



44 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

There is no receiving without giving. We have it in 
our power to make life just as great and just as joy- 
ous as we please, but no one else can make it so for 
us. Each man fulfils his own destiny, but that des- 
tiny is the result of what he feels, and thinks, and 
acts. His life may be as he will it, little or great. 
There is no chance, no luck, no happening ; everything 
that comes into life is the result of law and order, 
cause and effect. We make causes, and reap effects. 
As a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he *" so he must 
become. 

No development takes place in the life of man save 
as he is engaged in some kind of work, because, as I 
have said before, we work out everything in the na- 
ture of the plan that God has written into human life. 
The acorn works out the plan that is written into it 
and eventually becomes the towering oak. Man works 
out the image and likeness that has been written into 
his soul, and, eventually, that which we call human 
becomes divine. We are all working from the earth 
to the heaven ; we are all evolving from the Adam to 
the Christ. In the evolution of the human soul, just 
as fast as the unfolding takes place from within, does 
it affect everything without; for everything in the 
outer world is only a series of pictures of what man 
has felt, and thought, and lived in the past. He is the 
summing up and epitomising of nature in himself, 
and because he is all this, he must be something more 
than this. He must epitomise all the life, wisdom, 
and power that exists in the great Over-Soul ; he must 
be the real representative of God on earth; he must 
become fully conscious of a universal Mind and Will 
working in him, to will, and to do. 

Man must realise that as a purely personal being he 



MUSIC AND COLOUR TONES 45 

can do nothing, but as a child of God, he is endowed 
potentially with omniscience and omnipotence, for it 
is God that worketh within him to will and to do. No 
man liveth to himself, no man dieth to himself. One 
Life and One Intelligence guides and directs all alike. 
One Will and One Power lives and moves in all souls, 
whether developed or undeveloped, but the undevel- 
oped is all unconscious of this, whereas the one who is 
developed is thoroughly conscious that of himself he 
is nothing — ^that it is God working in him, and because 
of this he is able to accomplish everything in life that 
he wills to do. To such a one life becomes filled with 
unlimited possibilities. All the littleness, all the mean- 
ness is swallowed up, or, I might say, all shadows are 
left behind when one presses forward in accordance 
with the Divine Will. Such a one is preparing him- 
self, through living a beautiful and harmonious life, 
to see more and more of the beauty and harmony of 
the great outer world in which he lives. Nature is 
his mirror in which he sees himself as he is. If he 
brings joy and gladness, if he brings peace and good- 
will, if he brings gentleness and kindness to the mir- 
ror, he is going to see with the eyes of the Lord, and 
the eyes of the Lord are too pure to behold iniquity. 
To the pure in heart all things are pure. Life gives 
him back that which he brings to it. Man is not left 
to the condemnation or mercy of anything save his 
own ideals, for he rewards or punishes himself as he 
consciously obeys or disobeys the laws of life. The 
development of his own life is committed to his own 
care. He has everything necessary wherewith to work 
out every hidden power, every unseen possibility; but 
it is through work that it is all accomplished. Through 
work he can make his life what he wills to make it. 



46 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Man is master of his own fate. He is neither con- 
trolled by circumstances nor environment. He can be 
as great as his highest ideal, but only through con- 
formity to the laws which regulate all life. He must 
learn to feel the real rhythm of being; he must express 
that rhythm through melody; he must so adjust his 
mind to both his inner and outer life that he uses har- 
mony in a perfect way. If he is doing this, then he is 
fulfilling the laws of life and reaping the true reward 
of his own right actions. When man lives in this 
way, he not only experiences greater health and happi- 
ness, but he is bringing an influence to bear upon the 
lives of others that will make for untold good. The 
world to-day is asking for light, for more light, and 
if anyone can show a way of living that will bring 
greater health and happiness to it, that is of more 
importance than many theories that do not deal with 
the life of man in a practical way. The ideal and the 
practical must go hand in hand. Theories may be 
wonderful and beautiful, but if they are lacking in 
practical good, then the dwelling on such theories is 
only a waste of time. The need of the world to-day 
is for something that will bring to it more of joy and 
peace, more of health and happiness, and anyone who 
can suggest that which will help to do this, is a real 
benefactor in the highest and best sense of the word. 
In giving to the world my suggestions for the use 
of music and colour I am convinced that all real bet- 
terment of mankind must come first through inner feel- 
ing and idealistic thought, then through the unfolding 
of these two qualities there will ensue fuller and freer 
expression in man's outer world and life ; for life and 
its full development is a much deeper thing than its 
outer environment, a much higher thing than food, 



MUSIC AND COLOUR TONES 47 

drink, and raiment ; for while the latter are necessary, 
it IS still more essential that man should seek to de- 
velop his whole nature, his soul, his mind, and his 
body, so that the whole man may be quickened and 
renewed from centre to circumference. If I can sug- 
gest in this book that which will help toward such an 
end, then I shall be fully satisfied. I firmly believe, 
however, that a time will come when the world's ills, 
whether of a mental or a physical nature, shall not 
only be helped, but actually healed through the scien- 
tific use of music and colour; and it is to that par- 
ticular end that I wish to direct the minds of those 
desirous of investigating the subject in a thorough 
way, as well as to awaken the interest of the non- 
professional reader. I am fully aware of the fact 
that, in a desultory way, music has been and is being 
used in institutions in different parts of the country 
with varying results. It is my sincere desire, however, 
to see the whole question taken up in a thoroughly 
scientific way, and every phase of the subject not only 
investigated, but the results tabulated, to the end that 
a real system of scientific therapeutics may be estab- 
lished that shall meet the needs and requirements of 
every form of disease, whether it be disease of mind 
or of body. Furthermore, if such a system were once 
inaugurated, it would pre-exclude the quack or the 
superficial practitioner; because if music and colour 
become an exact science of healing, then before one 
might hope to practise it, it would be necessary to be 
scientifically trained. The practitioner would of ne- 
cessity have been obliged to make a thorough study of 
music and colour, and their effects upon the varying 
temperaments of people, and be able to diagnose the 
nature of the trouble, and prescribe the needed remedy. 



48 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

A system of music and colour therapeutics, too, would 
without doubt do as much good to the doctor as to 
his patients, for at the present time the medical doctor 
is so absorbed in his material remedies, that the whole 
trend of his work shapes his mind toward a mate- 
rialistic view of life. This tends, in turn, to destroy 
intuition and real imagination, and makes the man as 
material as his remedies. It is not my wish to be in 
any way antagonistic to medical doctors. I should 
not be carrying out the principles I try to inculcate in 
this book if I were. My thought, therefore, is not 
directed against the men who practise the present sys- 
tems of healing, but rather against the systems them- 
selves. The world has had many systems of healing 
with material remedies in its time, and all have been 
tried and found wanting. The systems of the future 
will have to take this one fact into consideration, that 
man is a living soul possessed of a body, and that the 
body's needs can best be supplied by the healing prop- 
erties of the soul. Everything necessary to health, 
strength, and happiness is resident in man's life, and 
when he uses the power in his possession to control to 
the full the forces of his own life, he will be success- 
ful, not only in overcoming disease with health, but in 
everything that he undertakes. He will grow in wis- 
dom and stature, and eventually will become a law 
unto himself, having dominion and power over all 
things. 



CHAPTER V 

COLOUR VALUES 

"And what if trade sow cities 
Like shells along the shore, 
And thatch with towns the prairie broad 
With railways ironed o'er; — 
They are but sailing foambells 
Along Thought's causing stream, 
And take their shape and Sun-colour 
From Him that sends the dream." — Emerson. 

"There are things whose strong reality 
Outshines our fairyland ; in shape and hues 
More beautiful than our fantastic sky. 
And the strange constellations which the Muse 
O'er her wild universe is skilful to diffuse." 

— Byron. 

Going back to a remote past, we not only find many 
great philosophers who believed in the efficacy of 
music for the healing of the sick, but also find re- 
corded many notable cases of such healing. And 
these cures are not confined to any particular, clime 
or country, but seem to have taken place all through 
the ages, first in one country and then in another. 
There are so many well-authenticated cases of cures 
that apparently there can be no valid reason offered 
either to deny or disprove such claims for music. 

Of the use of colour, however, in connection with 
music as a therapeutic agent, there is apparently no 
record, and perhaps there may have been a good rea- 
son for this, for it is very doubtful if the people of 
the past saw or appreciated colour as we do in the 
present. The development of colour seeing is just as 

49 



50 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

much an inner development, and perhaps even more 
so, than the hearing of musical sounds; and it is sin- 
gular, to say the least, that, if people of ancient times 
knew colours and felt them as much as we do, there 
should be so little record of it in the writings of the 
past. Our books of the present refer to colour over 
and over again, in one way or another, but you will 
find few such references in the Middle Ages, or even 
in those of a later date, and even those references 
mention comparatively few colours. It may be ar- 
gued that the great old masters of painting were in 
possession of and used even finer colours than those 
in use by our modern painters. In one way, that is 
true. They had a knowledge of more enduring colour 
than we possess at the present time, but it must be 
quite evident to the student that they used far less va- 
riety of colour than our own painters do at the pres- 
ent time. So far as I know, then, colour has never 
been associated with music for therapeutic purposes. 
Within recent years, a number of writers of books 
have dv/elt on the value of colours for the healing of 
the sick ; but I have never heard of mental or physical 
ills being cured solely through the use of colour. In 
this chapter I offer suggestions as to how colour may 
be combined with music in such a way as to get the 
greatest good from both. I have often known the 
sick to take decided dislikes to objects of different 
colours in the rooms they occupied, and in some cases 
the dislike was so great that the distasteful object had 
to be removed. If, in the treatment of the sick with 
music, harmonious music is necessary so that the ap- 
peal to the ear may have the effect of awakening the 
inner emotions, then it must also be necessary, in 
order to engender a harmonious condition of thought 



COLOUR VALUES 51 

and feeling, to make the same appeal through the 
sight, so that the seeing and the hearing may jointly 
work together. The subject is so large a one that it 
will not be possible in this chapter to do other than 
indicate how colour is to be made to harmonise with 
music for the healing of the sick. 
I Everything we see in the world is visible to us be- 
cause it either absorbs light or reflects light. Almost 
every object reflects light to some degree, and some 
objects do so in a very marked wa}^; but every object 
also absorbs light, some absorbing by far the greater 
part of the light, and others reflecting the greater part. 
When a ray of sunshine passes through a glass prism, 
it is decomposed or separated, and the result is that we 
have what is called the seven prismatic colours. We 
have first three colours which we call primary: red, 
yellow, and blue. Three more we call secondary: 
orange, green, and violet. From these, we might go 
on to say, we have the tertiary colours made up of 
two parts of the secondary colours. We might con- 
tinue a further analysis of the subject of colour with- 
out much gain in doing so. 

In music, it is the relation that one note or one 
chord bears to another that produces melody and har- 
mony of sounds. The same law may be said to prevail 
in the use of colour. We might say that there is both 
analogy and contrast between the different colours and 
different chords; and if we are to get the happiest 
effects from both, it will be necessary for us to observe 
the laws of analogy and contrast both in music and 
in colour. Too often in the furnishing of rooms, com- 
paratively little attention is paid to either one or the 
other; consequently, a room having everything in it 
necessary to make it both beautiful and harmonious, 



52 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

is often only incongruous because of things which de- 
tract from the harmony and beauty of the rest of 
the room. 

When we speak of the harmonies of analogy we are 
referring to the colours that are related; such as red 
and orange yellow, yellow and blue, blue and green, 
violet and red. Now these colours in the furnishing 
of a room can usually be made to produce a greater 
harmony of effect, especially in small rooms, than can 
be done through contrast of colours. In small rooms, 
when contrast of colour is used, it has the effect of 
making the room appear smaller. Harmonious con- 
trast, then, will be best obtained in large rooms, that 
is, harmonies of contrast from what are called un- 
related colours; such as blue and orange, red and 
green, yellow and violet. 

Just a word of explanation as to why the terms 
analogy and contrast are used in defining colour har- 
monies. Red and yellow are the first and third notes 
in the octave of colour. From them there is pro- 
duced orange, which partakes of the colour of both; 
therefore, orange is related to red and is related to 
yellow as well. Violet draws part of its colour from 
indigo and part from red. Blue, which is the fifth 
note in the octave of colour, is related to green on one 
side and violet on the other. Thus we see how col- 
ours are related. Now for contrast or unrelated 
colour, take as an illustration red and green: green is 
a combination of yellow and blue, and therefore is in 
no way related to red. Take yellow and violet: violet 
is a combination of red and indigo, therefore in no 
way related to yellow ; and orange is a combination of 
red and yellow and not related to blue, yet from all 
these colours we may produce a wonderful beauty of 



COLOUR VALUES 53 

contrast, so that analogy and contrast both have their 
own special harmonies. In juxtaposition with both 
analogy and contrast of colour, white may be used, 
as this tends to intensify colour ; or black which tends 
to weaken it, while grey neutralises it. Luminous or 
warm colours such as red, orange, yellow, and the 
lighter shades of green tend to enhance one's mental 
and physical vibration, so that people suffering from 
loss of vitality may be aided by their use; while 
people labouring under excitement would be soothed 
and quieted best through the use of the non-luminous 
or so-called cold colours. Again, much depends on 
whether the room receives much or little light. If the 
light is very strong, then subdued colours will tend to 
make the room more restful, while if the light is poor, 
then luminous colours will prove the best. Luminous 
colours, however, tend to make a small room look 
smaller, while such colours as greens, blues, and greys 
have the reverse effect. Again, there is the question of 
colour in relation to temperature. Cool colours in 
summer will, as a general thing, give better effect than 
warm colours. In winter, there is a keener enjoyment 
derived from warm colours than from those which 
are considered cold. We need much more colour in 
our houses in the winter than we do at any other season 
of the year, because nature, during the winter, gives 
us little of anything other than cold or neutral colour. 
I think there is a much keener enjoyment of bright- 
coloured flowers in the home during winter-time than 
during the summer season. ] The interior luminous 
colours in the house make the necessary contrast with 
the outside world. While in the late spring, and sum- 
mer, and early autumn, nature gives such varieties of 
colours in hues, and shades, and tints, that the cold, 



54 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

subdued, or neutral colours within the home give the 
needed contrast, causing one to feel more cool and 
restful than would otherwise prove the case. Great 
discrimination should be used by those who undertake 
the use of colour for the treatment of the sick. For 
the room that would be of the greatest help to one per- 
son might prove decidedly the reverse to another. It 
is my opinion that all bedrooms should be made to 
look bright and happy, but not stately or cold. To 
get the effect of brightness and happiness, it is neces- 
sary to avoid, in so far as possible, straight lines ; cir- 
cles, curves, loops, etc., can all be used in such a way 
as to produce beauty of harmony and a happiness that 
cannot be produced through the use of straight lines. 
It would seem almost as though nature abhorred the 
straight line as much as it does a vacuum. Take those 
trees, mostly of the cedar family, that grow straight 
up with few branches; their foliage is usually very 
dark, and they present, more or less, a gloomy appear- 
ance. Somehow, they have always seemed to me to 
have an affinity with cemeteries. While the white 
birch, in turn, with its twisted and gnarled branches, 
and its leaves of light green, seem fairly to dance with 
joy. If you want beauty in a small room, avoid the 
straight line as much as possible. Give curves to your 
drapery or festoons, and do away with everything 
that tends to severity. This is what I call making a 
happy room. After all, it is not so much a question 
of the quantity or even the quality of what you have 
in it as of the judgment you have used in harmonising 
all its effects. It is a singular thing that the Greeks 
in their fresco work used red, blue, and yellow, inten- 
sified or modified by white or blue. It is singular for 
this reason, that those are the three primary colours, 



COLOUR VALUES 55 

corresponding in music to the first, third, and fifth 
notes of the octave, which really form everything that 
is fundamental both in music and colour. And I have 
not the slightest doubt that the Greeks had as perfect 
a foundation for their music as they had for their use 
of colour. Their use of blue, purple, and gold showed 
them to be master colourists chief among the nations 
of the world. 

I have an idea that violet will prove one of the most 
efficacious of all colours for the healing of the sick, 
but it will demand better judgment in its use than 
possibly all the rest of the colours combined ; because 
into this our seventh colour there enters not only all 
the vibration which has preceded it, but it is united 
with an invisible colour, red, that gives it chemical 
properties only as yet partially understood. I find, 
too, that comparatively few people in the world have 
as yet any keen appreciation of this most wonderful 
of all colours of the spectrum. 

There is such a profound psychology of colour that 
I think if people were left free to choose their own 
colours, the healer could determine their degree of soul 
development by the very choice and use of colours, 
and music might be used for the same end in the same 
way. The soul and mind if left entirely to themselves 
will give an exact impression outwardly of that to 
which they have unfolded inwardly. While violet is 
considered one of the cold colours, just the reverse of 
this is true. It takes a certain amount of coldness 
from indigo, but it takes again from the invisible red 
(or what is now called ultra violet) a warmth that 
none of the other colours know, not even red, the first 
note in the first octave of colour ; but it is not a warmth 
that excites either the physical or the mental quali- 



56 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

ties, but one that excites man's, highest emotional na- 
ture. The colour is essentially a spiritual one ; on one 
side it is the ending of the old order, and on the other 
it is the beginning of the new. We are certainly at 
the beginning of a new order in life that will receive 
its supreme direction from the indwelling Spirit, but 
will manifest itself in the diversity of new musical 
tones and melodies of new visible colours and hues. 
There is a new world that is almost here; a world 
that will be apprehended through a new consciousness. 
It is only within comparatively recent times that we 
have heard of what composers and musicians call "col- 
our music." There is much of Wagner's music 
that would come under this heading. Undoubtedly it 
came from Wagner's love of colour; for, in a letter 
he wrote we read: 'Is it really such an outrageous 
demand if I claim a right to the little bit of luxury 
I like? I, who am preparing enjoyment for thou- 
sands! I am differently organised from other men. 
<' I must have beauty, colour, light." This love of 
beauty, colour, and light produced later the wonder of 
beauty, colour, and light in his compositions. For 
whatever we love, that we all come to express in one 
way or another. Undoubtedly, the love of colour on 
the part of the composer affected his music, and if the 
inner eye were opened for seeing emotion as the inner 
ear hears it, in all music we should see the beauty of 
colour as well as hear the melody of sound. The 
composer of music who has no love of colour will 
never be able to put colourinto his music. The music 
of the future will not only contain all the rhythm, 
melody, and harmony of sound, but all the hues, 
shades, and tints of colour as well ; for colour is sound 
jnade visible and gound is colour made audible. 



COLOUR VALUES 57 

Through the perfect union of the two will come music 
far more beautiful than the world has ever known. 
Colour music is therefore no misnomer. All the 
colours may be felt and afterward written into mu- 
sic. I have heard of a blind boy describing the 
touch of scarlet geraniums as the sound of a trum- 
pet. ; That description is really an accurate one. And 
I believe colour, in turn, may be so felt and under- 
stood that it may be translated into music. In fact, 
colour music exists as a reality, A Wallace Riming- 
ton, professor of fine arts at Queen's College, Lon- 
don, has not only written a book on colour music, but 
has invented a colour organ and other colour instru- 
ments to give expression to colour in a musical way. 
And the late Sir Hubert von Herkomer, R.A., who 
wrote an introduction to the book, ends it in this way : 
"But to sum up briefly, Mr. Rimington's mobile colour 
system seems to me a method to enable one to see 
sound and hear colour ;'* and in another part of his in- 
troduction he says, referring to the colour organ: "To 
sit at this instrument and improvise for half an hour, 
whilst watching the ever-varying combinations of col- 
ours on the screen produced by the playing, is not 
only an unspeakable delight, but of real health-giving 
effect on the sense of colour. How much more val- 
uable, as a stimulant, is mobile colour than the fixed 
colours of a rug which the eye gets accustomed to 
and which thereby acts no longer as a tonic/' To 
those Interested in colour music, this book will prove 
of much interest. A recent writer on colour has said : 
"Colour is indispensable to man's well-being and hap- 
piness. Deprivation of colour might render him liable 
to physical and even mental deterioration." It is said 
to be a recognized pathological fact that some sort of 



58 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

colour is indispensable to the healthy condition of the 
eye. I have been told that more colour-blind men and 
women exist among the Quakers than among any 
other body of people, and it has been accounted for 
by their abstinence from the use of colour. The Quak- 
ers of the past have clothed themselves almost entirely 
in what might be called neutral colours, and it is nec- 
essary to like colour in order to see it. I do not think 
that anyone should dislike any colour; that very dis- 
like will gradually obliterate their sense of that par- 
ticular colour. What we all need to do is to try to 
see more and more of the beauty, wonder and har- 
monies in colour, and in this way have an ever-expand- 
ing field of colour open to our vision. Sooner or later 
a new octave of colour will be opened up to the vision 
of those who have prepared themselves to receive it. 
But before that can come, there must be the thorough 
appreciation of the spectrum of colour we already 
possess. We have seven colours, but from those seven 
there can be produced a million hues, shades, and tints, 
and when we are able to see these through the use of 
our eyes, then the beauty of colour will have been 
multiplied in us to such a degree as is almost incon- 
ceivable now. What the world needs to-day is a 
greater love of the beautiful, a keener appreciation 
of true and beautiful ideals; a stronger desire to enter 
into and enjoy all those things, which, while not mak- 
ing for worldly possessions, nevertheless make for 
the real riches of life. Why should material riches so 
engross the mind that the joy and the happiness of 
life is lost in the quest for worldly possessions? It 
seems to me that men and women place all their hopes 
of happiness in material things, and lose sight of the 
supreme fact that everything necessary for a bright. 



COLOUR VALUES 59 

joyous, happy life is resident in the self. We cannot 
purchase the love of other people with anything that 
we may give to them. Only love will call out love. 
Love is an attribute in each person's life. One may 
use it, or refrain from using it; but only through its 
use need one hope to call it out in other lives. The 
love of beauty lives in us ; through its use, day by day 
or hour by hour, we are constantly seeing new beau- 
ties in nature, and beauty of qualities and character in 
individuals. If beauty is to grow more and more a 
state of consciousness in life, it will be because of 
our use of it. Harmonious living is brought to pass 
through the use of control of mind. The one who 
seeks to replace discordant thoughts with true ones 
eventually gains that peace and that poise of mind 
which is so necessary to all true living. No, the real 
riches of life, its joy, and its happiness, are not 
wrapped up in our material possessions, but in the 
rhythm, melody, and harmony of our own conscious- 
ness. Each person has the power within himself to 
make his life what he wills it to be. He can estab- 
lish for himself a relationship to everything that is 
necessary to his happiness or well-being. To the de- 
gree that he uses his innate powers and possibilities, 
to that degree will he express the pure tone and beauty 
of music and colour in his own life. 



CHAPTER VI 

MUSIC— A COMPELLING POWER 

"I pant for the music which is divine; 
My heart in its thirst is a dying power. 
Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine; 
Loosen the notes in a silver shower. 
Like a herbless plain for the gentle rain, 
I gasp, I faint, till they wake again. 

"Let me drink of the spirit of that sweet sound 
More, oh more! — I am thirsting yet! 
It loosens the serpent which care has bound 
Upon my heart, to^ stifle it ; 
The dissolving strain, through every vein, 
Passes into my heart and brain." — Shelley. 

"Orpheus with his lute made trees 
And the mountain tops that freeze 
Bow themselves when he did sing: 
To his music plants and flowers 
Ever sprung; as sun and showers 
There had made a lasting spring." — ^John Fletcher. 

As far back as we are able to go in the history of 
man, music has been used in his religious life. Un- 
der its influence people have endured martyrdom, ap- 
parently without physical pain or suffering; and over 
and over again through its influence men have been 
able to accomplish many things that would otherwise 
have seemed impossible. Man has put into music his 
spiritual feelings, his highest thoughts, and his best 
sense perception; and then again he has perverted 
music so as to awaken all kinds of dormant passions, 
evil and cruel thoughts, and sense emotions. In the 
first instance, his music was of a creative order; in 
the second, it was destructive. When music is put 

60 



MUSIC— A COMPELLING POWER 6i 

to a legitimate end, it not only has a refining influ- 
ence, but it becomes a constructive agent in life. 

Music can be adapted to every plane of being ; even 
the music which is, we might say, of an elemental 
order, need not necessarily produce other than a good 
influence upon those using it or listening to it. While 
it may be termed sense music and appeal to man 
through his senses, we must remember that all the 
senses are good, and that only through their perver- 
sion or being put to a use that they were really not 
intended for, does discord or evil come into existence. 
This elemental music has often the effect of stirring 
one's most vital activities on the physical plane, and 
there comes such an exuberance of life and vitality 
that it can only find expression through dancing or 
other rhythmic motions of the body. This activity, in 
turn, sets up, as it were, a habit of graceful movement, 
and easy carriage of the body, and is therefore to be 
looked upon as something that is really beneficial. 

Dvorak has written some very wonderful gipsy 
music that conveys to the senses and to the mind some- 
thing of the real gipsy temperament. The music is 
filled with freedom and action, it typifies gipsy life in 
a way that few other composers have been able to do. 
Liszt, too, in his Hungarian Rhapsodies and other 
compositions, brings out in a marked way gipsy char- 
acteristics. The effect of such music is to stir the cir- 
culation of one's blood in a physical way and the 
imagination in a mental way. While not of a high 
or uplifting order, it might be used with beneficial 
effects upon the sluggish minded and physically lazy 
people to stir them to greater thought and action, even 
if that thought and action be not of a very high order. 

The elemental music is as necessary to the life of 



62 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

the physical plane as the higher spiritual music is nec- 
essary to the more developed states of being, and need 
not be prostituted to any vicious end or purpose. In 
fact, I believe that there is less evil motive in it, taken 
as a whole, than is to be found in some of the music 
that comes to us from composers who are capable of 
doing much better things, but who pervert their talents 
to selfish purposes and ends. 

In a recent conversation I had with a friend upon 
the power of music, she said: "Yes, I am quite will- 
ing to grant the power, but it is a power that leads 
one away from the worship of God to the worship of 
Apollo." The greatest spiritual music of all times 
breathes with the Spirit of God, and is, in my opinion, 
of a higher order of inspiration than the spoken word 
can ever be. The greatest composers (those who were 
highly spiritual or religious) have really been inspired 
through coming in closest relationship with the great 
Cosmic Consciousness; and they drew from this 
Source and not from any mental conception of their 
own. In this capacity they were not only musicians 
but prophets to convey new messages of glad tidings 
to the hearts and minds of men. No, Apollo works 
through an entirely different order of music. The 
music of Apollo may enthrall the senses and bewitch 
the mind, but it can never uplift the soul of man. The 
mind, for a time, may respond to the joys and pleas- 
ures of earth, but the soul can only draw its highest 
inspiration from the Universal Spirit. 

"Left so free mine ears 
That I might hear the music of the spheres, 
And all the angels singing out of heaven." 

The best music must have real fundamental mo- 



MUSIC— A COMPELLING POWER 63 

tives ; must deal, too, with living ideals, in order to be 
of value ; it must be used as a means of calling out all 
the latent powers and possibilities of man's inner life. 
The spirit of joy, hope, love, faith, and courage must 
be the underlying factors in music,' so that the whole 
inner life of man may be awakened. Music, whether 
vocal or instrumental, can never be made to transfer 
from the mind of the musician to the listener's mind 
any of those qualities, but one may become the means 
of using music in such a way as to call out or to 
awaken in the lives of others these fundamental quali- 
ties of life. Therefore it is not so much what one is 
able to impart through music, as what one is able to 
call out in an ever-increasing way. All outer things 
are only a means to an end. The elemental man is 
potentially a Christ. No other man can give to him 
the Christ principle, but the action of other lives upon 
him may eventually become the means for the awaken- 
ing of the divine knowledge within. 

No one can as yet estimate the real value of music 
upon human life. Yet there should be an ever-grow- 
ing appreciation of good music, and this in turn will 
cause composers not only to put the beauty of art into 
their music, but the beauty of nature, the beauty of 
soul. Richard Strauss' two operas "Salome" and 
"Electra" may both be wonderful as artistic produc- 
tions, but they have nothing in them that satisfies the 
soul. Such music stands out in marked contrast to 
Wagner's "Lohengrin" or even "Tannhauser," for 
while these two operas, in some parts, do not fully 
satisfy, there is still so much in both that commends 
itself to one's higher nature that one gains rather 
than loses in listening to them, and one feels something 
of real inspiration in them that is lacking in the other 



64 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

two. But it is in "Parsifal" that Wagner is at his 
best, for a large part of the opera breathes of the 
highest and most spiritual thought of man's being. 
It is the story of the evolution of the soul in its 
progress from darkness to light, in its upward trend 
from ignorance to knowledge until in the fulness of 
time there comes the perfected life of the full meas- 
ure of a man, wherein life is expressed through wis- 
dom and love, and man becomes a law unto himself. 
As we ascend the scale of being, there comes with 
such development the love of nature, and this in turn 
expresses itself in what may be termed nature music. 
A little later there comes a still higher phase of nature 
music which appeals quite as much to the mind as it 
does to the sense. A beautiful illustration of this 
music is to be found in Wagner's "Evening Star" 
from "Tannhauser." Such music as this tends to 
bring about a restfulness and a higher mental har- 
mony. Mendelssohn's beautiful "Spring Song" is an- 
other striking example of the higher nature music, but 
pre-eminent among compositions of this class are those 
of Schubert, a man who may be said to be nature's 
own musician. His music is filled with the rustling of 
leaves, the sound of running brooks, the perfume and 
the colour of flowers. It is the song of one who loved 
nature and who was close to nature's heart, and could 
interpret her in a way that few composers have ever 
been able to do. There is very much in Schubert's 
music to appeal to this higher nature side of man, to 
inspire him with the beauty and the wonder that is 
ever awaiting to be disclosed to the one who loves sun- 
shine and shadow, moonlight and starlight, mountains 
and valleys, rivers and oceans, trees and plants, birds 
and flowers, and is quick to respond to the wondrous 



MUSIC— A COMPELLING POWER 65 

music that nature holds as a secret and will only 
disclose to the one who loves her. 

From the earliest times, the value of music has been 
recognised by its effect upon armies engaged in war ; 
that it inspired to greater courage and action. Tyr- 
teus, the Spartan poet, by certain verses which he sang 
to the accompaniment of flutes, so inflamed the cour- 
age of his countrymen, that they achieved a great vic- 
tory over the Messenians, to whom they had submit- 
ted in several previous conflicts. 

"And I that prated peace, when first I heard 
War-music, felt the blind wild-beast of force 
Whose home is in the sinews of a man 
Stir in me as to strike." 

In martial music the appeal is made to both mind and 
feeling through love of country and the desire for 
freedom; its influence and power over the lives of 
men may be noted in such striking examples as the 
Marseillaise, Die Wacht am Rhein, Rule Britannia, 
and other equally well-known battle-songs and hymns. 
According to the listener's development, will such 
music appeal to him. In one man it will arouse only 
his lower passions, in another, the love of country, 
patriotism or the desire to keep free; different inter- 
pretations of the same music will arise from different 
degrees of development. 

During the time of the French Revolution, a young 
army oflicer, by the name of De Lisle, composed the 
words and music of the most stirring, as well as the 
most famous of all war-songs — the Marseillaise. 
Carlyle called it the luckiest musical composition ever 
promulgated. Heine exclaimed "What a song! It 
thrills me with fiery delight, it kindles within me the 



66 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

glowing star of enthusiasm." Sir Walter Scott called 
it the finest hymn to which liberty has given birth. 
Lamartine said: "Glory and Divine Victory and Death 
are mingled in its train." **De Lisle, after he had fin- 
ished the music and words, we are told, went to the 
house of a friend and had his eldest daughter play the 
accompaniment while he sang it, with the result that 
at the first stanza all faces turned pale. At the sec- 
ond tears ran down every cheek, and at the last all 
the madness of enthusiasm broke forth. The hymn 
of the country, destined also to be the hymn of terror, 
had been found." 

"But still the music of his song 
Rises o'er all elate and strong; 
Its master-chords 
Are Manhood, Freedom, Brotherhood." 

A noted traveller, in the early part of the nineteenth 
century, gives a description of a military trumpet used 
in Abyssinia. He wrote that it sounds only one note, 
in a hoarse and terrible tone; that it is played loudly 
when the soldiers are on the march or before an enemy 
appears in sight, but on going into battle the note is 
repeated very quickly and with great violence. It has 
a powerful effect upon Abyssinian soldiers, absolutely 
transporting them with fury and madness, and ren- 
dering them so regardless of life as to make them 
throw themselves into the midst of the enemy and 
fight with the most determined gallantry against all 
disadvantages. The writer adds that often in time of 
peace he tried what effect the rapid blowing of the 
trumpet would have upon them, and found that none 
who heard it could remain seated; they all arose and 
kept continually in motion while the trumpet was 
sounding. 



MUSIC— A COMPELLING POWER 6y 

The very highest music of all, however, comes only- 
through what we speak of, in the first place, as hu- 
man love, and, in the second, as religious or divine 
love ; the first having to do with love in a personal way, 
and the second with love from a more universal point 
of view. It is undoubtedly thus that the very high- 
est music is distinctively religious, not in any sec- 
tarian way, but in the broad sense of the word, since 
it arouses the deepest feeling in the life of man. It 
was such music men sang when being burned at the 
stake, and which caused mind and soul to so transcend 
their bodies that in all probability there was no physical 
suffering. 

On every plane of being, music must be considered 
as being good; but we know that on every plane of 
being even the highest things may be put to perverted 
uses, and because of this become highly destructive; 
for the greatest good, when perverted or put to a 
wrong use, really becomes the greatest evil. It is per- 
haps not well known that in the action of law any evil 
or perverse action reacts upon the life of the one who 
produces such action; when this is fully known and 
understood, people will become more careful as to 
what they give to the world, and in the time to come, 
men and women will seek to put into action only 
those things which they conceive to be for the greatest 
good for the rest of mankind. Consequently we may 
expect from music, as from everything else, higher 
and better results than even those which have been 
attained in the past. 

"Ring out ye crystal spheres! 
Once bless our human ears, 
(If ye have power to touch our senses so) 
And let your silver chime 



68 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Move in melodious time, 

And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow. 
And with your nine-fold harmony- 
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony." 

I have pointed out the part that music plays in re- 
ligion and in warfare, but it has also a place in what 
we term the relaxations of life, for when the mind 
lays aside for the time being its burdens, it may enter 
into such real enjoyment of music as brings with it 
peace of mind and harmony of body. No one who has 
any knowledge of the subject will dispute any of the 
foregoing statements; but that music may be used to 
bring about a permanently harmonious mental condi- 
tion and a strong, healthy condition of body, many 
people will question. I am convinced, however, that 
in the time to come music will not only do this, but 
will eventually be considered as the greatest curative 
agent of which man can avail himself. 

On every plane of human life, from the most ele- 
mental to the most highly civilised, music produces 
not only a wonderful influence on mind, but on the 
body also. Even when we leave the human plane alto- 
gether, we find that very many animals come under 
its influence; especially is this noticeable among the 
many varieties of serpents. The effect produced upon 
them, in many cases, is to turn a state of anger into 
one of tractability, not to say of pleasure ; a condition 
is induced in the serpent very similar to the one David 
produced on King Saul. 

"Again the harmony comes o'er the vale; 
And through the trees I view the embattled tower 
Whence all the music. I again perceive 
The soothing influence of the wafted strains. 
And settle in soft musings as I tread 
The walk, still verdant, under oaks and elms, 
Whose outspread branches overarch the glade." 



MUSIC—A COMPELLING POWER 69 

Music has power not only to soothe and to lull, but 
to awaken and energise, and through such awakening 
man is able to accomplish and do things which would 
seem impossible to achieve under other circumstances. 
Let a person become possessed of a great ideal and 
others may think that he can never succeed in carrying 
it out ; but there is within him that innate intelligence, 
power, and energy that can never rest until the desired 
end is attained. No matter how great the ideal may 
be, when it enters fully and completely into the life 
of a man, it exists there solely to be expressed, and 
any man co-operating with the laws of life is capa- 
ble of doing whatever he wills to do. 

Man, with all his achievements, is as yet only in 
his infancy. He has, however, passed through that 
stage wherein he looked upon himself as a "worm of 
the earth," and his face is now upturned toward the 
stars. He is beginning to dream dreams, and see 
visions of what life may become when he steadfastly 
turns his face toward the light. Slowly but surely 
there is coming into his life the consciousness of son- 
ship; that he is a part of the whole; that he is one 
with the inner life and the outer form. The whole 
trend of life is an upward one. It is a constant over- 
coming and as constant a becoming. Each ideal, when 
realised, becomes a step in the upward way. Each 
ideal realised is the cause of a new and greater ideal 
yet to be realised, and with such realisation comes the 
greater gain in mental and physical power, and a 
greater knowledge for the true direction of that power ; 
finally, man comes consciously to know that he is in 
an ever-increasing scale that leads from death unto 
life, from earth unto heaven, from humanity to divin- 
ity. Through such development will man take his 



70 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

righteous place among the angelic hosts that are sing- 
ing the new song of life. The golden harps referred 
to in the New Testament symbolise the coming of a 
time when man through the rhythm, melody, and har- 
mony of his life shall strike every chord of his being, 
and give forth that music which has ever existed in 
his soul, although mind and body have not, as yet, 
been attuned to express it. The wisest and greatest 
prophets of all ages have declared the truth of this. 
In the book of Job we read: "Whereupon are the 
foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner 
stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, 
and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Shake- 
speare, in his "Merchant of Venice,'' writes: 

"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold*st 
But in his motion like an angel sings, 
Still choiring to the young-eyed cherubims: 
Such harmony is in immortal souls; 
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it." 

Many of the greatest minds of ancient times believed 
in the theory of the music of the spheres, and among 
ancient writers it was a favourite subject of philosoph- 
ical inquiry. Pythagoras and Plato were of opinion 
that the music constituted the soul of the planets in 
our system, and the disciples of both these celebrated 
philosophers supposed the universe to be formed on 
the principle of harmony. 

The Pythagoreans maintained an opinion which 
many of the poets have adopted, that music is pro- 
duced by the motion of the spheres in their several 
orbits, and the names of the sounds, in all probability, 
were derived from the seven stars. Pythagoras says 
that the whole world is made according to musical 



MUSIC— A COMPELLING POWER 71 

proportion. Plato asserts that the soul of the world 
is conjoined with musical proportion. Sir Isaac New-, 
ton was of opinion that the principles of harmony 
pervade the universe, and gives a proof of the general 
principles from the analogy between colours and 
sounds. From a number of experiments made on a 
ray of light with the prism, he found that the pri- 
mary colours occupied spaces exactly corresponding 
with those intervals which constitute the octave in the 
division of a musical chord ; and hence he has shown 
the obvious affinity existing between the harmony of 
colours and musical sounds. 

Cicero notices the astonishing power of music, and 
Plato supposes that the effect of harmony on the mind 
is equal to that of air on the body. Father Kircher 
requires four conditions in music proper for the re- 
moval of sickness: first, harmony; second, number and 
proportion; third, efficacious and pathetic words joined 
to the harmony; fourth, a skill in the adaptation of 
these indispensable parts to the constitution, disposi- 
tion, and inclination of the patient. 

The celebrated Italian composer and musician, Tar- 
tini, who lived something over two hundred years ago, 
taught that with the problem of harmony solved, the 
mystery of creation, of even divinity itself, would be 
revealed in the mystical symbols of tone relation. 

Mysticism, music, and religion are so intimately 
related, that it is difficult to tell whether music in- 
spires to religion and mysticism, or religion and mys- 
ticism inspire to music. If we look upon religion as 
a state of feeling, a development of man's love nature 
and highest emotions, then it is only reasonable to 
suggest that music becomes the means of expression 
and that through voice or instrument we get the high- 



72 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

est and best expression of the God that lives in man. 
The patron saint of music, St. Cecilia, around whose 
personality are woven so many wonderful, as well as 
beautiful, legends of music, was of a deeply religious 
nature, and seemed to be endowed with power through 
her music to affect the minds of people to an almost 
miraculous degree. The poet Dryden, in the follow- 
ing lines, tells in musical verse something of this 
power : 

"Orpheus could lead the savage race. 
And trees uprooted left their place. 

Sequacious of the lyre: 
But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher: 
When to her organ vocal breath was given. 
An angel heard, and straight appeared, 

Mistaking earth for heaven!" 

The compelling power of music will be better un- 
derstood when it is once realised that music is prob- 
ably the highest, as well as the deepest, expression of 
Universal Will. Music is not a production of any 
human being, but all music is divine in its origin, and 
the composer is the discoverer and gives form to that 
which he discovers. Later, the singer or instrumental 
musician becomes the interpreter. The imperfections, 
if there exist any, are not in the original music, but 
in the inability of the composer to transcribe the music 
as he heard it in his inner consciousness, or the lack 
of true interpretation on the part of the singer or the 
instrumentalist. If music, then, is one of the highest 
expressions of Universal Will, then beyond doubt it 
must have a compelling power, and it should be able 
to overcome any or all obstacles by which anyone 
may be confronted in this life. It may be made to 
overcome hate with love, doubt with faith, gloom with 
hope, bring light out of darkness, and so ennoble, beau- 
tify, and strengthen the whole life. 



CHAPTER VII 

JOY RHYTHM THE DANCE 

"Say, what shall we dance? 
Shall we bound along the moonlight plain 
To music of Italy, Greece, or Spain? 
Say, what shall we dance? 
Shall we, like those who rove 
Through bright Granada's grove, 
To the light Bolero's measures move? 
Or choose the Guaracia's languishing lay, 
And thus to its sound die away? 

"Strike the gay chords, 
Let us hear each strain from every shore 
That music haunts, or young feet wander o'er. 
Then comes the smooth waltz, to whose floating sound 
Like dreams we go gliding around. 
Say, which shall we dance? which shall we dance?" 

— Thomas Moore 

In a study of the psychology of life we are often 
confronted by little or great movements that spring 
up almost in a night, swaying, at times, only the body 
of people or the nation that inaugurated them, and 
again exerting a world-wide influence. The student 
of history will find any number of such movements. 
As a general thing they have small beginnings, but, 
like the small snowball started rolling down hill, they 
soon accumulate greater weight and body, and, after 
a time, assume huge proportions. Reaching their cli- 
max, they usually begin to diminish, and then seem 
gradually to pass away, but this is seldom, if ever, the 
case. There is always something left behind that may 
eventually flame into being and repeat itself again. 
These periodic waves of movements assume many and 

7Z 



74 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

varied forms; sometimes it may be a financial wave 
such as the South Sea Bubble. Finance is periodically 
subject to its years of receding and its years of flood 
tides, which, whether we know it or not, are states of 
consciousness. Again, we have such movements as 
the tulip craze which started in Holland and extended 
to many other countries, where people squandered for- 
tunes in purchasing rare varieties of tulips. The craze 
passed away, but left its impression behind, for Hol- 
land still produces the greatest number and variety of 
tulips. In our own country we have had the business 
card collecting craze, which began first with a com- 
paratively few people at the Centennial Exhibition in 
1876, and was later followed by a wave that swept 
over the whole country. There followed later the 
14-15 puzzle. I use the foregoing examples only as 
an illustration to show that the contagion comes from 
a few people who are actively engaged in something 
a little out of the usual order, and that coming from 
it there is literally a hypnotic suggestion to which the 
receptive or negative minded are the first to respond, 
and later the stronger or the more positive minds be- 
come more or less influenced. Now, it is natural that 
this should be so. If we consider humanity as a whole, 
and the individual units as forming parts of the grand 
body, then that which affects the parts must even- 
tually come to affect the whole. If the original impulse 
is a very strong one, then the whole body is affected 
in a very complete way, but if the first impulse has 
not some good reason for its existence, or is incom- 
plete or partial, while it may affect the receptive or 
negative minded, it is quite unlikely that it will affect 
in any marked way the strong or positive minded por- 
tion of the community, the nation, or the world. The 



JOY RHYTHM— THE DANCE 75 

foregoing statement is apropos of a movement that 
had its beginning in our own country. I am referring 
to the modern dance. 

Until quite recently the United States would hardly 
have been called a country that was given, as a whole, 
to dancing ; but the last few years have brought about 
a wonderful change, and I doubt if, at the present 
time, there is any other country wherein there is as 
much dancing going on as in our own. Now there 
must be some good reason for this very radical change, 
and I think such a reason will be found in the fact 
that for many years we, as a people, have been lacking 
in all true rhythmic expression. We have expressed 
ourselves in many ways and degrees, but not in a 
rhythmic way, not in a way that has disclosed much 
of either grace or beauty, and the pendulum is now 
swinging in the other direction. And I believe that 
from this on there will be an ever-increasing effort on 
the part of a large body of our people to give expres- 
sion to life in a more beautiful and graceful way, and 
that this beauty and grace will not be confined solely 
to the dance, but will enter into practically everything 
that they do in life. We have not yet grasped the 
full import of this new movement, for while the dance 
is probably as old as human life on the planet, yet 
it is new to countless thousands who have previously 
cared little if anything for it. and it is new in the 
sense of its taking such a hold on the imagination 
and exerting an apparently compelling influence upon 
so many minds. I do not think that it will be as 
ephemeral as so many other movements we have passed 
through. While undoubtedly it will reach its climax 
and possibly decrease in a large measure, neverthe- 
less it will not only continue to have a greater follow- 



76 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

ing than it has had in the past, but it will become a 
permanent influence for good in many other ways 
than simply the pleasure or joy one receives from the 
dancing alone. 

As a people we have been so wrapped up in material 
advancement that we have had little time to do other 
than cultivate the mind toward business interests ; con- 
sequently, we derive little if any satisfaction out of the 
many things which the more artistic and beauty-loving 
nations of the earth find both pleasure and profit in. 
However, when once started, we take hold of every- 
thing not only in a more vigorous, but in a more 
rapid way, and possibly in a shorter time than most 
people, we become highly proficient in many things 
in which at one time we were deficient. In some 
directions we have been making more wonderful prog- 
ress than any other nation on the face of the earth. 
In material accumulations we are outstripping all the 
nations of the earth. The Panama Canal, our enor- 
mous system of railroads, and our labor-saving de- 
vices show us in certain departments to be ahead or 
fully abreast of the greatest nations of the earth. 

But when it comes to the artistic side of life, and 
the effort to express through beautiful ways and means, 
we are woefully deficient. As a people we have given 
little, if any, encouragement to our own composers, 
musicians, painters, sculptors, and even architects, al- 
though perhaps within recent years the last-named 
have had better opportunities for expression than any 
of the others just mentioned. We have had, then, the 
fullest material expression up to the present, but the 
development of beauty and art in America has been 
largely repressed. We have cultivated to the extreme 
material power, and this, without doubt, has caused 



JOY RHYTHM— THE DANCE ^'j 

the repression of idealism, and everything in the na- 
ture of true rhythm, grace, and beauty. But we are 
waking up, we are coming to see that life consists of 
something more than material possessions, and we are 
beginning to express along rhythmic lines in one of 
the first ways that expression comes to man — ^through 
the dance. For after musical tone, dancing follows 
as the next necessary expression of rhythm. If we 
have lost all natural rhythm in the past, the inner im- 
pulse is to restore it, and if we are able to restore it 
in one way, later we shall be able to restore it in all 
ways; so no one should deplore the efforts that are 
being made to return to the natural rhythm of life 
through or by the dance; neither can it be expected 
that either grace or beauty will be found at their 
best in the first attempt that is being made to open up 
the inner spring of life. 

"Continuous as the stars that shine 
And twinkle on the milky way, 
They stretched in never-ending line 
Along the margin of a bay; 
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 

**The waves beside them danced; but they 
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee; 
A poet could not but be gay 
In such a jocund company: 
I gazed — and gazed — but little thought 
What wealth to me the show had brought." 

Music, poetry, and dancing are the first three graces 
in human life, and they are so closely related that 
each one adds to the value of the others. We may 
think that we possess sufficient knowledge for the care 
of mind and body, as did the people of ancient times, 
but without doubt they knew, in those early days, 



78 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

much better about many things than we do at the 
present time. We are too self-sufficient. We have 
an idea that ours is the ideal democracy, that we know 
more of what constitutes the liberty, equality, and 
fraternity of life than has yet been known by any of 
the great democracies of the past. But we deceive 
ourselves. The ancient democracy of Greece was prob- 
ably as much in advance of what we are as we are 
in advance of the coloured race in our own midst. 
This may not be at all flattering to our racial pride, 
but I cannot see how any reasoning, logical mind can 
reach any other conclusion. Notwithstanding, I be- 
lieve that the tendency of the advanced thinkers among 
our people is turning in the right direction, and that 
at some time in the future our bigness will become 
greatness. We have reached the "know-it-all" period, 
and henceforward we may be able to draw lessons 
from the past and profit by the example of other 
people. There really can be no doubt whatever that, 
up to a comparatively recent time, for a so-called 
civilised people, we have been the most deadly, in- 
artistic people that have ever encumbered the face of 
the earth. But it is never too late to mend. And 
when people are able to see their own faults and 
shortcomings, that is the beginning of the turn of 
the tide, for mistakes must be seen in order to be 
corrected. And if we have the liberty to commit 
errors, we have also the power to overcome them. 

America has become the melting-pot for humanity, 
but when the dross is consumed we shall have the 
pure gold. Within the nation there are doubtless in- 
nate and potential powers and possibilities as great 
as the world has ever known, and they exist in order 
to be realised. But they neither can nor will be real- 



JOY RHYTHM— THE DANCE 79 

ised through the old ways and methods. The old 
bottles will not hold the new wine. We must leave 
the old things behind and press forward to those things 
which are before. The new life is always the result 
of inner feeling and new thought, and from the two 
there comes outer expression. 

Among many people, the dance as well as song has 
been a part of religious ceremonial. Milton, in his 
"Paradise Lost," makes reference to the song and 
dance about the sacred hill. 

"That day, as other solemn days they spent 
In song and dance about the Sacred hill 
Mystical dance which yonder starry sphere 
Of planets, and fix'd, in all her wheels, 
Resembles nearest, mazes intricate, 
Eccentric, intervolved yet regular. 
Then most, when most irregular they seem 
And in their motions divine 
So smooth her charming tones, 
That God's own ear listens delighted." 

With very few exceptions the religious sects of the 
civilised world of the present, while retaining music 
as a part of their religious services, have done away 
with dancing; in fact, the dance is under a ban even 
in a purely secular way among many of the most 
prominent sects of the Christian Church. We have 
sufficient evidence in the Old Testament to show that 
the Jewish people used to dance in connection with 
religious ceremonial. Perhaps among none of the 
nations of the earth has it been used to the same 
degree in connection with religious rites as among the 
ancient Greeks. Dancing is not by any means the 
highest expression of life's rhythm, but it is surely 
as much a part of a natural expression of rhythm as 
music or poetry. In fact, dancing may be made a 



8o THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

true expression of both. All over the civilised world 
to-day there exists almost a mania for dancing, and 
on every side you hear people arguing for or against 
the dance. Some say: if we are to have a revival of 
the dance, let us have the graceful dances of the past; 
others take the ground that it is necessary to inject 
something new and fresh into life, and that the mod- 
ern dances give evidence that such newness and fresh- 
ness are entering into life. Some there be who say 
that many of the dances are highly immoral, and that 
they should be prohibited altogether; but there are 
people so constructed that they see immorality in every- 
thing that does not accord with their particular con- 
ventional way of looking at life. Some people can 
write morality into everything they do, while there 
are others who, looking for evil, find it in everything 
and in everybody. I think that the originators of the 
new dances should see that true rhythm, grace, and 
beauty are absolutely necessary to the real and lasting 
success of dancing. Any dance that is ungraceful or 
lacking in beauty is not worthy of consideration. Of 
course, it may be said that some people are able to 
infuse grace and beauty into any dance, just as some 
people are able to see good in everything. But even 
so, if the majority of dancers are unable to make the 
dance beautiful as well as graceful, then there can be 
no real reason for its existence. In fact, the truth 
of this has been proved, for many dances that were 
popular only one short year ago have no place in 
the dancing of to-day. Let it then be understood, 
once and for all, that rhythm, grace, and beauty con- 
stitute the enduring features of any or all dances. 

Our own country gave the greatest impetus to the 
rhythmic movement which is being expressed through 



JOY RHYTHM— THE DANCE 8i 

the dance. This movement has become worldwide ; it 
has met with all kinds of opposition from clerical and 
lay sources, and yet it has gone on regardless of both, 
for the reason that it contained a message within it- 
self which, if understood and used aright, would make 
for the betterment of mankind. With every new de- 
parture there is always much that is going to disturb 
the conventional thought of the time, and a certain 
number of people are absolutely sure to rise up and 
try to thwart the progress of any movement that would 
make for human development. They are like so many 
old women trying to sweep back the onward-coming 
tide. But progress is the keynote of life, and their 
puny efforts come to naught. They have nothing to 
do with the present or the future of the dance. 

It is upon the professors and the teachers who are 
the real exponents of the dance that the continuation 
and the progress of the dance will depend. From 
henceforward the world will not accept the partial 
or the incomplete, the unnatural or the ungraceful, 
except for a brief season of time. What the world 
of the present should demand is the very best of 
everything, for it is only the best that shall endure. 
At the present the shoemaker, the baker, or the can- 
dlestick maker can become the professor or the teacher 
of dancing, and a certain number of people will en- 
thusiastically become their followers. But this, at best, 
is only a superficial, temporary condition and cannot 
continue. In fact, already it has become evident that 
the people who can inculcate the rhythm, grace, and 
beauty of dancing are having all they can possibly 
do, while the charlatans and incompetents are begin- 
ning to see the sign of the times, and are slowly but 
surely losing their followers. It is therefore necessary 



82 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

that the intelligent and cultivated professors of the 
dance who desire to perpetuate this renaissance of 
rhythmic movement should continue to improve it in 
every way possible through the use of rhythm and 
melody, grace, and beauty, so that the dance may 
become as perfect an expression of man's inner thought 
and feeling as it is possible to make it. Increase the 
number and variety of the dances, but never sacrifice 
quality for either variety or number. Grace and beauty 
should be the determining factors in the use of any 
new steps in the dances. Teachers, as well as stu- 
dents, should realise that excesses of any kind are 
followed by reactions; that temperance is necessary 
in all things; and that there is no surer way of de- 
stroying the value of anything, no matter how worth 
while it may be, than by using it to excess. The dance 
has its legitimate place in the world ; it can do almost 
untold good if used in a natural way; but its abuse 
will cut short its usefulness and its duration more 
quickly than all anathemas that may be hurled against 
it by the clerical or the lay mind. Its coming at the 
present time is really a harbinger of the artistic life 
that is yet to come, because the freedom of mind and 
body realised through the dance will reach out and 
affect life in many new and varied artistic ways. 
Not that I mean that it will bring new arts into being, 
but it will so colour the other arts that we shall have 
newer and more artistic expression. All the arts are 
so related and interrelated that a movement in any 
one is really the starting of an impulse that will reach 
out and extend to all the rest. After all, no matter 
what the art may be, it is founded on the great trinity 
of rhythm, melody, and harmony. The recognition 
of these three brings grace, symmetry, and beauty to 



JOY RHYTHM— THE DANCE 83 

all the rest. Life is one, but diversity is made evi- 
dent throughout all expression. One law controls and 
directs the whole universe, but expresses itself through 
a multiplicity and variety of forms. Unity exists at 
the heart of life and diversity on its surface. 

Dancing is necessary to the full development of 
man, inasmuch as all natural expression is essential 
to right living. There is a mental and physical ex- 
hilaration in dancing that has a vitalising effect upon 
the whole life. The full benefit, however, can only 
be obtained when the dancer is alive to the indwelling 
rhythm that is necessary to all true dancing. When 
he thoroughly feels this rhythm, then his movements 
become graceful and there is a beauty of expression. 
Almost everyone enjoys seeing one or more people 
who are dancing with rhythm, grace, and beauty. The 
effect on the onlooker is often to exhilarate in a bene- 
ficial way. I have an idea that the person who per- 
fects himself in the art of dancing is also perfecting 
himself in many other ways. When one is able to 
express in a graceful or beautiful way, then this 
also has an uplifting effect in many other directions. 
The dance gives courtesy to speech and grace to ac- 
tion. As a physical exercise for the perfecting of 
health and strength, there are few that will prove so 
beneficial, because there is probably no other exercise 
wherein all the muscles of the body are used to the 
same degree. I can understand that excessive dancing, 
or the abuse of the dance through unnatural and un- 
graceful movements, may prove a detriment rather 
than a gain, but that holds good of anything and 
everything in life. No one can resort to unnatural 
ways of doing anything in life, without getting un- 
natural results. In dancing one learns, or at least 



84 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

one should learn, to hold the body erect in an easy 
and a graceful way. Through doing this all the or- 
gans of the body are held in their natural positions, 
so that each and every organ is enabled to function 
in a perfectly natural way. 

No one must mistake the use of time for rhythm 
in either music or dancing. Rhythm is a direct result 
of the inner feeling, and time becomes associated 
with it, yet it is something far greater in its power 
than time can ever become. A person may sing, play 
or dance and keep perfect time, and yet give no ex- 
pression of true rhythm. Rhythm always lends itself 
to graceful action and movement. Time is acquired 
through the use of the ear, and when not associated 
with rhythm is purely artificial. You will see many 
people who keep perfect time in dancing who are, 
nevertheless, awkward and ungraceful in movement, 
while others who are not keeping any better time are 
natural and graceful in movement because they are 
using life's inner rhythm instead of merely using time. 
The easy, elastic, graceful body is a true expression 
of the rhythm in the life of man. Dancing is one of 
the greatest arts for calling out and using rhythm, 
therefore it must occupy a worthy place in man's 
life. It is too soon as yet to say that the dance will 
become a part of religious ceremonial, but there is no 
reason to doubt that eventually it will regain its proper 
place in the religious systems of the world as an outer 
expression of inner joy, rhythm, and melody. 



CHAPTER VIII 

NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 

"And here the singer for his Art 
Not all in vain may plead, 
The song that moves a nation's heart 
Is in itself a deed!" —Tennyson. 

"Thine is music such as yields 
Feelings of old brooks and fields, 
And, around this pent-up room, 
Sheds a woodland, free perfume; 
O, thus forever sing to me! 

O, thus forever! 
The green, bright grass of childhood bring to me, 
Flowing like an emerald river, 
And the bright blue skies above! 
O, sing them back, as fresh as ever, 
Into the bosom of my love." — Lowell. 

When I use the term "art" in relation to singing, 
I should like it to be understood in this sense: that 
music produced by the human voice is a natural ex- 
pression of life just as much as the song of the bird. 
And while to an extent this expression is spontaneous 
and instinctive, yet through the desire to express by 
the voice and with continued practice one may go on 
developing far beyond anything that was deemed pos- 
sible in the beginning. Art does not make the voice, 
but art assists in getting the best possible production 
from the voice. At times a person not in possession 
of a beautiful voice may use his art to such a degree 
as_to produce a more pleasing effect upon people than 
could another person with a more beautiful voice who 
lacks artistic expression. 

It is plainly the duty of anyone who wishes to sing 

85 



86 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

in a thoroughly artistic manner to use all the means 
at his command to bring about the desired end ; but too 
often the mistake has been made of wanting to hurry 
in order to get results in the shortest possible time. 
Everything in life that is really worth while acquiring 
is done through intelligently directed effort. An un- 
due straining may defeat or retard the thing we most 
desire. Everything in the nature of strain or undue 
tension used by the one who wishes to sing will inter- 
fere with the true development of the singing voice. 
It is far better to train the voice first of all, within 
a comparatively small compass, than to try to sing low 
notes that are ugly and high notes that are thin and 
Strained. The singing student should try to put beauty 
of tone into every note, and until he is able to do 
that, he must go on using the notes in which beauty 
of tone is perfected so that later there will come the 
same beauty and perfection into the higher tones. 

The human voice is a whole orchestra of musical 
instruments, and must always, in the highest sense, 
be greater than any one or any number of musical 
instruments. While the instrumental musician may 
be able to awaken, to a marked degree, man's inner 
feelings, yet, after all, the voice is the living instru- 
ment, and can be made to respond to every emotion 
in a way that no instrument can; therefore I would 
give the voice the first place in health restoration. 
Do not think for a moment that I underestimate the 
value of instrumental music or its power to affect the 
emotional nature of the human mentality. Personally 
I have derived enormous benefit, both of soul and 
mind, through listening to a fine orchestra, or a great 
organ, or music produced through other instruments 
of any kind, I can well conceive that there are times 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 87 

when instrumental music may prove of as great value 
to a patient as that produced by the voice, if not even 
greater, because many voices might not be so well 
attuned to the patient's needs, nor able to meet those 
needs to the degree that a thoroughly trained and 
highly sympathetic instrumental musician would. The 
singer who would heal through his voice must be a 
psychologist of the first order; one who is able to 
perceive the needs of his patient, and through such 
perception be able to reach his patient's thought and 
feeling with music especially adapted to the require- 
ments of the case. All other things being equal, I 
maintain that it will be through the use of the singing 
voice that the best results will obtain for both mind 
and body. The human voice may be made the means 
of carrying more of the inner feeling and best thought 
to the mentality of another, in a more direct and 
subtle way than could ever be done by the instru- 
mental musician. I can see, however, that happy com- 
binations in connection with the voice might be made, 
such as piano, violin, 'cello and harp accompaniments, 
wherein the voice and the instruments might give hap- 
pier results than either one alone. 

The singer who would heal people of either mental 
disturbances or physical infirmities, or both, should 
bring to his work as much of physical health and 
strength as it is possible for him to express ; as much 
of the joy and the optimism of life as he can feel and 
think; as much of intuitive and intelligent perception 
of music as he has been able to develop or acquire. 
He should be thoroughly in love with his work, and 
his chief aim and object should be to awaken and 
bring to his work all his spiritual, mental, and physical 
powers, in order to be truly helpful to those who need 



88 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

his help. He should understand that his body and 
every part of it should be used in the production of 
music. If he keeps his whole body in a state of 
elasticity, his music will have far greater resonance, 
and beauty, and purity of tone than if he were 
thinking solely of technique with little or no regard 
for his organism. Technique has its own value, but 
that value may be overestimated, and the singer who 
is going to prove the most successful will only acquire 
technique in order to forget it. For everything that 
is once made. thoroughly clear to the conscious mind 
is ever after pictured in the subconscious mind and 
stands ever ready to bring back to consciousness what- 
ever is needed at any and every occasion, if the con- 
scious mind does not become too active in its effort 
to recall it. I repeat what I have already said else- 
where, that after the habit of doing anything in a 
right way is once established, it is far easier to express 
through that habit than in any other possible way. 
When one comes to sing, everything in reference to 
technique should be put out of the conscious mind. 
The music and the words of the song, for the time 
being, are the all-important things, and the singer 
should become so absorbed in his song as to forget 
everything else. We can do only one thing well at 
a time. Perfect concentration is needed as much in 
singing as in anything else we do. All thought of 
breath control, form moulds, vocal cords, and every- 
thing relating to the physical should be forgotten in 
order to make the singing a thoroughly spontaneous 
flow of song produced without undue effort or physical 
tension. For only thus can one hope to produce purity 
and beauty of tone. Self-consciousness in a singer or 
instrumental musician is fatal to the best production. 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 89 

If one is doing the very best one can, what difference 
does it make if some think well and others think ill? 
Besides, were the singer Israf el himself, he would not 
be able to please and charm everybody. There would 
be some who would decry or try to underrate his song. 
It is far better for the singer or the musician to feel 
and know in his own heart and mind that he has done 
the very best it was possible for him to do in his work 
than to have the plaudits of the multitude and, at the 
same time, to know that he might have done better. 
Self -consciousness is perhaps the greatest fault that 
many singers and musicians have to deal with. It too 
often stands in the way of their success. It is a very 
subtle phase of selfishness, and the sooner it is over- 
come the better it is going to be for both the per- 
former and the listener, because the performer can 
only give of his best work when he is thoroughly 
absorbed in the giving. 

I have known many singers who spent much of their 
time and money going again and again to throat 
specialists to have their throats treated. If the same 
time had been expended in an effort to control their 
own superficial thoughts and emotions, their throats 
would have required no such physical treatment. For 
throat specialists depend for their practice largely upon 
those who give way to irritability and other super- 
ficial emotions. There is nothing that will disturb the 
singing voice and produce irritation of the vocal cords 
to the same degree that anger and irritability do. 
Next to that, worry and anxiety produce a similar 
result, and with any or all of these adverse conditions 
the tendency of the voice, whether it be that of the 
speaking or singing voice, is to drop back in the throat, 
and in doing this the vocal cords are affected so that 



90 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

all beauty and purity of tone is lost. Loss of vitality 
through overwork or undue mental or physical tension 
will give the same results in a lesser degree. The 
human voice is like a violin that must be constantly 
kept in tune in order to produce the best music, and 
one of the greatest attuning factors in life is to feel 
the joy and the brightness of living. The singer who 
is bright, joyous, and happy will always be in condition 
to impart to the lives of others something of the 
brightness, the joy, and the happiness that animate 
and permeate his own life. His music goes out from 
him in melodious, rhythmic, harmonious vibration and 
sets up, to a degree, the same kind of vibration of 
rhythm, melody, and harmony in the lives of all who 
respond to his music. 

I have often heard the expression used that this or 
that person's voice is as "hard as nails.'V Sometimes 
this hardness of voice is the result of poor training, or 
again it may come from the singer's own nature. The 
voice is bound to tell its own story through the use 
of its harmonics. All the spiritual, mental, and phys- 
ical characteristics of the singer enter into its produc- 
tion. It tells what the person has felt, thought, and 
been. Every characteristic is expressed by the tones 
of the dominant harmonics in each voice. Even in 
the speaking voice the trained ear of a good judge of 
human nature can detect the true or the false by 
listening to the spoken word. Often in listening to 
singing one feels the enthusiasm and the emotion of 
the singer, and one is carried away by its persuasive 
power. Or again, one may feel disdain or distrust 
in listening to the tone, because it is born of the 
singer's own insincerity. The singer may wish to 
carry only beauty of tone expression to the mind of 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 91 

the listeners, but somehow the dominant f eehngs and 
thoughts of the singer find expression in the singing 
voice and carry to the hearer's mind either the impure 
thought and feeling, or the insincere emotional feeling 
and thought. True feeling is the greatest impulse 
toward producing beautiful musical tones, and the 
singer who is dominated by the spirit of love can 
impart of his or her own spirit to the minds of the 
listeners. True feeling puts both warmth and colour 
into the voice. The singer must interpret the very 
soul of music, but in order to do that he must have 
had soul experience, must have lived the soul life; 
for we can only put into a voice what the soul has 
felt and what the mind has thought, and in turn the 
body must be the plastic, as well as the elastic, instru- 
ment through which the music comes. There are 
teachers of singing who contend that when vocal sound 
has its perfect position, and when the perfection of 
mould or form is acquired, every musical tone will be- 
come as perfect as the mould. In one way this may 
be true, but in another way it is far from the truth. 
A painter might take a pencil, and with it outline on 
his canvas a picture he intends to paint. However, 
when he had finished his drawing, no matter how 
perfect it might be, it could never be a painting until 
he had used his brush and his paints, and then his 
picture would glow with warmth and colour. One 
may, to a degree, simulate beauty and colour of tone, 
but the one who feels music knows it to be only a 
copy of the real, containing nothing of true value in 
itself. It is desirable in singing to acquire as full a 
technique in relation to mould and form as possible, 
so that the singer may have a perfect diction, but dic- 
tion is not music, it is only a mental and physical 



92 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

effort to give music as good a setting as possible. 
The one who sings most beautifully will use heart 
and mind and body, all three in perfect unison to give 
the full beauty, value, and expression to the song. 

In singing, as well as in everything else we do in 
life, the thing that is done in a natural way will not 
only be done easily, but well. For nature's methods, 
whether we know it or not, are always the best. Na- 
ture gives us the fundamental, and art helps us to 
build thereon. But true art never conflicts with 
nature; there is simply a natural reciprocity between 
the two. All strained and undue effort is unnatural, 
and no one can hope to get natural effects from un- 
natural effort. Cause and effect are inseparably bound 
together; natural causes give natural effects; unnatu- 
ral causes give unnatural effects. I knew of a woman 
who took singing lessons abroad, who for nearly a 
year's time had to keep a piece of wood in her mouth 
in order to keep it open as wide as possible, her teacher 
insisting that only in this way would she be able to 
produce a beautiful singing voice. I heard the voice 
once or twice, and without doubt it was the most 
disagreeable, discordant singing voice that I had ever 
heard. It was absolutely lacking in rhythm, melody, 
resonance and beauty. I do not mean to say that the 
teacher was solely responsible for this, but I do say 
that the teacher's method would be enough to destroy 
the voice of an angel. Artistic co-operation with na- 
ture's ways and means will alwavs prove the most 
satisfactory in the end. 

Many people get the impression that, in voice pro- 
duction, a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of all 
the organs used in singing is necessary to both teacher 
and pupil. There is so much of this introduced into 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 93 

singing lessons that one might think the teacher should 
be as skilled in surgery as in the production of a 
voice, and the student often becomes so confused in 
the effort to comply with the requirements of the 
teacher that the technique, seemingly, is built up at 
the expense of the voice. In doing this, it often hap- 
pens that one thing of the greatest importance is over- 
looked — that is, that the student must be taught to 
listen. Every tone has a purity all its own, but a 
purity that should harmonise with every other tone. 
When a tone is perfect, or as nearly perfect as the 
human voice can make it, the value of it may be car- 
ried into the other tones by listening and so getting 
the ear thoroughly impressed with its sound. In listen- 
ing to the voices of some singers, one becomes pain- 
fully aware that they (the singers) have never heard 
the inner message of the music they are singing, and 
no matter how artistically they may sing, or how per- 
fect their technique may be, there is something lacking 
and the listener is not moved by the music ; for music 
is essentially of the soul, and if it be lacking in soul 
qualities, no one need expect it to reach the hearts 
of the listeners. So one should learn to listen to mu- 
sic, not with an active mind, but in a restful mental 
condition, wherein one can absorb the sound. I have 
known people who were able to do this to such a 
degree that after hearing a composition sung once, 
they had no difficulty in repeating it without making 
mistakes of any kind. Use the ear to listen to music, 
but listen with the heart as well, for only in this 
way can one understand what the music is meant to 
convey. A singer should always remember that con- 
tained within the greater thing is the lesser, and that 
the form or technique through which music expresses 



94 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

itself is not, and never can be, as great as the music 
itself, any more than a song can be as great as the 
singer of it. The soul can make its own form or 
technique, but the whole technique of music could not 
make music. I have no wish to underestimate the 
value of technique in its legitimate place, but the singer 
whose whole mind is filled with a conscious effort to 
do everything in the most technical way, can never 
become a spontaneous singer. If the mind is absorbed 
with the thought of breath control, and forms, or 
moulds through which the voice should pass, the voice 
will become just as mechanical as a musical instrument. 

Again I say, technique should only be acquired in 
order to be forgotten when one begins to sing. It is 
a trite saying that the highest art conceals art. Often 
we hear professional elocutionists read, and their art 
is made to detract from the value of the reading for 
the simple reason that the listener's mind is quite as 
conscious of the technique as of the thought and sen- 
timent in the reading. We know that the very best 
elocution is that in which the listener becomes so ab- 
sorbed in the subject matter imparted by the reader 
that he loses sight of all else. I have heard great 
singers who would so entrance you with their singing 
that you had really no desire even to look at them, 
but would choose rather to close the eyes so that 
nothing might detract from the beauty of the voice. 

Singing is a natural expression of life. The regret- 
table thing is that so few people give natural expres- 
sion in this way to the music that is within them. 
If they could realise how much singing would add to 
their own health and happiness, and also the happiness 
and consequently the health of others, we should hear 
many more naturally good singers. A thoroughly 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 95 

healthy body, one that is elastic and rhythmic in its 
movement, forms what we might call the physical basis 
of singing. I can remember seeing Edwin Booth in 
one of his plays many years ago, and I shall never for- 
get the elasticity of his body, and its beautiful rhyth- 
mic movement. One could not but feel in listening 
to his w^ords, and watching his acting, that this man 
was the thorough artist, but back of it all there must 
have been something more than art. That wonderful, 
vibrant life would have expressed itself in a thoroughly 
artistic way even if the artistic side had been left un- 
trained. I do not question for a minute that art added 
both to the value of his speaking and acting, but an- 
other might have had all his art without his greatness. 
There is a natural beauty of song which need not 
be a studied art. Sometimes this natural beauty and 
power may carry fully as much conviction to the 
hearts and minds of the listeners as the thoroughly 
trained voice could do. Ira D. Sankey, in his day, 
was a living exponent of this. All over the world 
he swayed the hearts and minds of people with the 
fervour and glow of the religious conviction he put 
into his songs. The artistic singer might criticise his 
use of tone production, but could not produce the 
effects that Sankey was able to produce with his nat- 
ural singing. The one who would sing well should 
remember this: that everything that affects his mind 
or his feelings in a vicious way will interfere with 
his tone production. In order to retain a beautiful 
voice, one must live a beautiful life; because, after 
all, the most beautiful singing comes when the soul 
is awakened. It is doubtful whether the world has 
produced in modern times a more beautiful singer 
than Jenny Lind, and it is doubtful if any singer 



96 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

of modern times has lived a more beautiful life. The 
outer revelation of beauty can only come from a 
person who, in consciousness of both heart and mind, 
feels, thinks, and lives a beautiful life. Such a life 
always tends toward greater health and power. 

Some people have what might be termed a good ear 
for melody and time. This is always of the greatest 
help to them. But it can be acquired by people who 
have not developed it naturally. In order to sing well, 
one should also speak well. There are some who say 
that the speaking voice has comparatively little to do 
with the singing voice, but this is not so. It has far 
more to do with it than most people imagine. True 
it is that the speaking voice is generally used to give 
expression to one's thoughts and the singing voice to 
give expression to one's emotions. But in varying de- 
gree, both thought and emotion enter into speech and 
song, although in singing greater variety of rhythm 
is required, yet the emotions demanded both in singing 
and in poetic rendering are alike in quality. All emo- 
tions, whether expressed by the speaking or singing 
voice, require rhythm if one would interpret the emo- 
tions aright. Each kind of emotion has its own par- 
ticular rhythm. Joy should cause the speaking voice 
to leap and almost sing. In speaking with sadness, 
one cannot connote words of joy, because sadness re- 
quires rhythm full of its own motive, which is slow 
and complete. The ecstasy that one tries to express 
through the spoken word takes its rhythm in a quick, 
rising movement, while mystery may be best expressed 
by a rhythm that has suspense and restraint, a rising 
and a falling. We might say it affects speech much in 
the same way as the use of chromatics in music. The 
speaking voice cannot interpret emotion in the same 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 97 

degree that the singing voice does, and in all proba- 
bility the reason for this is that the rhythm of poetry 
is very limited in comparison with that of song. 

I believe that the very effort that one makes to 
sing is an aid to health and happiness. It sets up a 
more harmonious rate of vibration in the body, and 
continued singing will help to re-establish such vibra- 
tion as a natural habit. Everyone should learn to sing, 
and there are few people in the world who cannot 
be taught enough about the art of singing to be able 
to express themselves through the singing voice. The 
people who cannot do so should try to find such ex- 
pression through the study of some musical instru- 
ment. The world to-day needs all the music that it 
can possibly get in order to save it from materialistic 
thought, and to overcome the deep unrest that prevails 
the world over. Music can be made to preach a gospel 
of peace and good will to all men, a gospel of joy 
and happiness that will bring glad tidings to the world. 

I have found among teachers of singing a dogmat- 
ism of thought that can hardly be exceeded by any 
other professional body. Each teacher seems to have 
a method that differs in some respect from every other 
method, and each teacher is absolutely certain that his 
way is the only perfect one. It does not stand to 
human reason that all these differing methods can be 
perfect. The probability is that each one may have 
some one or more elements that are good, and if all 
these good elements could be brought together, some- 
thing in the nature of a perfect system might be 
worked out. But after all, no matter how perfect a 
system may be, something more than method is re- 
quired. Music flows from the great Over-Soul into 
the lives of those who are receptive to it. If there is 



98 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

no receptivity, then a singing method does not make it. 
The beautiful soulful voice is a product of an intui- 
tive receptive life, a life filled with the higher emo- 
tions. Method can never supply anyone with emotions, 
but it may add greatly to artistic production. It is 
usually found among teachers of singing that they 
emphasize some one particular phase of their work 
more than any other. Perhaps one has studied anat- 
omy or physiology, and, as a consequence, the student 
has to be instructed in a regular course of both. 
Again, another teacher has made a great study of 
breath and its control, and this forms the most im- 
portant part of his instruction. With another it is 
resonance, and so we might go on enumerating one 
thing after another. What the student needs is not 
the development of any one particular thing, but the 
use of everything necessary to artistic singing. Some 
years ago I had the pleasure of meeting a famous 
Italian pianist, and was much surprised, as well as 
pleased, by his method of instruction. He had two 
pianos in his studio, and if the student, while taking 
a lesson, made a mistake in technique or interpreta- 
tion, he would go to the other piano and play the par- 
ticular passage as it should have been played, instead 
of immediately pointing out the wrong way, as the 
majority of teachers do, thereby impressing upon the 
student*s mind the incorrect rather than the only way 
— the correct way. The result of this was that the 
pupil's mind was free from the confusion of having 
two ways to consider. I have known some teachers 
of singing to spend a third of their time in telling their 
pupils that they were doing things in the wrong way, 
while if they had employed the same time in showing 
them how to do things in the right way, the student's 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 99 

mind would not have become filled with fear, neither 
would it be confused by the two ways of doing things. 
There is one way of doing everything, and that is the 
right way ; and only the right way should be impressed 
upon the minds of the students. 

Teachers of singing, as well as all other teachers, 
need hope to impart to others only that of which 
they are in possession themselves. There are many 
teachers who would have to give up their profession 
and resort to other means for a livelihood if they real- 
ised the truth of this. If they wish their students to 
produce a certain tone or tones, or in fact, whatever 
the student needs to do, the teacher should be able to 
do it himself and so set the example. Very often it 
is a difficult matter for the student to hear his own 
tones in the same way that he can hear the tones of 
another; when such is the case it becomes necessary 
for the student to listen to the tones and to have the 
ear impressed by them. If the singing teacher cannot 
produce the quality of tone he desires from his pupil, 
then he is not fitted for the vocation he is engaged 
in. No matter what profession one takes up in life, 
there must be thorough study and application in order 
to make that profession a success. Singing, in one 
respect, is like any other art, practice helps to make 
perfect, and one can only hope to become a thoroughly 
artistic singer through the daily use of the voice. The 
main thing is that the practice should be regular, but 
not necessarily of long duration, for I think perhaps 
that two-thirds of the work attempted by the teacher 
of singing could be done better in other ways. Breath 
control is needed in order to sing well. One might 
take lessons in breathing and learn breath control in 
a very thorough way without consciously relating it to 



100 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

singing; or, again, one might make a thorough study 
of elocution for the development of the speaking voice 
and so acquire resonance and good diction. In such 
study the facial muscles would be developed ; resonance 
would be brought into the voice, and habits in mould 
forms established. This might all be done without 
connecting it in any way with the singing voice, so 
that when the necessity came for cultivating or de- 
veloping the voice, the proper habits would already 
have been established to remain indefinitely. I find too 
often that the student is thinking about how he is 
using his hard or soft palate, whether he is using the 
resonant chambers of his head or whether he is con- 
trolling his breath. His mind is divided in its atten- 
tion, and because of this he is unable to produce in a 
beautiful way. One can consciously do only one thing 
at a time and do it in the very best way. Therefore, 
when one sings, the whole heart and mind must go 
into the singing to the exclusion of everything else; 
for it is only in this way that one may hope to reach 
the hearts and minds of others. The student of sing- 
ing should realise that the music is in his soul and that 
he is to prepare his body as a fit instrument to give 
outer voice to his inner feeling. 

Every tone in the human voice has its own particu- 
lar power, and can be made to exert its influence upon 
the hearts and minds of others. The Hindu in reciting 
his prayers, very frequently intones to himself one of 
his most sacred words — OM. The intoning of this 
word brings to him not only a sense of reverence, but 
a feeling of power. Furthermore, it develops that 
wonderful head resonance, which gives richness and 
colour to his speech. The mere use of the v/ord OM 
might help one to develop resonance of voice, but when 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING loi 

one considers its relation to the Supreme Being, then 
the added thought and feehng produced would add 
beauty to the richness and colour that should go with 
resonance. Inner feeling has everything to do with 
the colour of the voice. After all, it is an effort to 
interpret the Divine that lives within us. The ma- 
jority of people fail to understand why one singer 
moves them to the very depths of their being while 
another who may have a more beautiful voice awakens 
no such emotion. We may account for it by saying 
that one has magnetism and the other is lacking in it. 
But what is magnetism? The magnetic forces in life 
are generated by inner feeling; consequently, the 
singer who has developed the greatest amount of feel- 
ing will be best able to give a record of it through the 
voice, for the voice can never give out what the life 
has not experienced. One can never give to the world 
that which they do not possess. Often we hear bright, 
fresh, beautiful voices that are produced in a thor- 
oughly artistic way, and while they contain the fresh- 
ness and, possibly, the innocence of life, yet they are 
never able to do more than to produce a superficial 
effect or give a temporary pleasure. They are like the 
light breezes that play on the surface of the water, 
causing it to ripple and dance, but they are not like 
the driving wind that causes the ocean to become a 
great seething mass of billowy waves ever rising and 
falling because of the power that is exerted by it. 
As I have said, every tone to which the human voice 
can give utterance is filled with a power that is all its 
own. Think how much that power would mean in life 
if it were only understood, and then used for the de- 
velopment of the user, and also for the good influence 
it would exert on others. The singing voice can make 



I02 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

us feel more of the innate power of life than possibly 
any or all other things in life. But we have not under- 
stood its power or its possibilities, and have thought 
of it merely as something to please, something to 
amuse, something to listen to in order to pass away a 
pleasant hour or two. We have thought of the ser- 
mon or the spoken prayer as forming the principal 
part of religious services, and of the Church music as 
a sort of ornamental arabesque that is no real or nec- 
essary part of the service. But the sermon and the 
prayer fall far short of giving as true an expression to 
the divine in man as the great anthem sung by the 
choir or the entire body of people in unison. For, 
such singing, if done in the spirit of reverence, will 
awaken a deeper glow of feeling than could any 
spoken words. Some time our religious bodies will 
have shorter sermons and prayers, and much more 
beautiful music, for music has a transforming power 
that nothing else in life possesses in the same degree. 

In another part of this chapter I have referred to 
the necessity of attentive listening to the tones one 
makes with the voice, or the beautiful tones produced 
by another, and how necessary it is to make each tone 
beautiful; not to try to make them alike, as that 
would be impossible to do, for each tone has its own 
particular rate of vibration, therefore no two tones 
could be exactly alike. Each tone, in the highest sense, 
should represent some particular degree of a spiritual 
attribute or a mental faculty of being. 

The word register, in relation to voice production, 
is partially artificial and only partially true. When 
we speak of a lower, a middle, and an upper register, 
we are too apt to think of them as purely physical 
— chest, middle, or palate, and head tones; and if 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 103 

any one of these registers of the voice is weak or 
uneven, then we try to overcome the physical weak- 
ness and estabHsh strength. There is a much deeper 
way of getting at the truth of this. Unity and trinity 
seem to be inseparably related. There is unity at the 
heart of music, but there is the trinity of rhythm, 
melody, and harmony necessary to its expression. 
There is only one Life in man, but there is a trinity 
of expression: spirit, thought, and sense; or, in an- 
other way, soul, mind, and body. Chest notes or the 
lower tones in music correspond to sense or body. 
Middle or palatal tones to that of mind, and head 
tones to soul or spirit. The tendency also is from 
lower to higher tones because through development 
one is always reaching up from the lower to the higher. 
Some singers find their notes weak in the lower regis- 
ter. When such weakness occurs, no matter what the 
voice may be, contralto or soprano,, bass or tenor, in 
some way the physical side of their lives is being 
neglected. Such neglect might result from excess in 
eating or drinking, but is even more likely to arise 
from not enough eating or drinking, or not enough 
physical exercise. The body is the instrument through 
which they give expression to their song; if the in- 
strument is not properly used, or if it is misused, it 
is no longer able to produce true musical tones. 
Therefore, it is necessary that the body should re- 
gain its normal. pitch; that it should be tuned through 
the use of everything necessary to its upbuilding, so 
that the whole body, as an instrument, may be both 
elastic and vibrant. The mind is responsible for this 
condition of body, and it is the mind that is the master, 
and must bring about the true adjustment and supply 
the body's every need. 



I04 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Next we come to the so-called middle register, which 
corresponds to mind, and any unevenness in this regis- 
ter shows that the mind is not attuned to life, or, at 
least, only partially so. Worry or anxiety produce a 
disturbing influence, and distraction of any kind will 
affect the evenness of quality. So there should come 
that control over one's thoughts that will bring about 
a state of mental restfulness and poise. With even- 
ness of mental control established, there will come 
evenness to the middle or throat register. 

Again, if there is unevenness in the development of 
the upper register, which really corresponds to soul 
aspiration, it is because of lack of spiritual develop- 
ment. I do not wish it to be understood by this state- 
ment that soul development means what people ordi- 
narily call religion. It has nothing to do with creed 
or dogma, ceremonial or form, but with a state of 
feeling. If music is an expression of soul passion, 
the music must express itself through the feeling of 
the singer. And if the notes in the register are un- 
even, then there needs to be a cultivation of one's in- 
ner feeling through the use of feeling, for we can 
exercise our feelings just as much as we can exercise 
our bodies. We exercise our bodies through physical 
use, and feeling is also exercised through use. Some- 
times we are fearful, and to overcome that, we should 
cultivate courage. Sometimes the life is filled with 
doubt; displace it with hope, cultivate love through 
gentleness and kindness. Try to feel quite as much 
or more than you think. Remember that it is through 
feeling that the highest musical expression must come. 
The beauty and purity of the harmonics or overtones 
of the upper register disclose to the highly attuned 
person much of the development of the singer. The 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 105 

tree is known by its fruits. Every overtone has its 
own story to tell, and tells it in no uncertain way. 
We find, then, that the three registers correspond to 
three states or three phases in the evolution of man. 
I do not wish to be misunderstood or to convey the 
impression that the high tenor and soprano are living 
any more religious or harmonious lives than the bass 
and contralto singers. We must look at life, from 
first to last, as being spiritual, no matter what the 
plane of expression may be ; so that the bass voice that 
shows evenness and beauty of tone might be indicative 
of a more perfectly lived life, according to one's ideals, 
than the tenor with unevenness or lack of quality or 
purity of tone. I would not have anyone think for a 
single moment that I would classify people as being 
either good or bad by the pitch or range of their voices, 
but people do classify themselves through the beauty, 
colour, and purity of their tone production or lack of 
it, whether they know it or not; and they do this as 
infallibly as the thermometer registers the temperature 
of heat or cold. To the untrained ear, through the 
use of acquired art, one may be able to cover up a 
multitude of sins in singing, sins of omission and com- 
mission. But to the ear that is attuned to the higher 
melodies and harmonies of life, there can be no such 
deception. The person who desires to develop the 
voice to its full capacity must learn to live in a full 
and a complete way ; must experience the pleasure and 
joy, happiness and harmony, of all three planes, — 
physical, mental, and spiritual, — in order to live the 
whole life that man has been intended to live. He 
must learn to live on all planes in a thoroughly whole- 
some, temperate way, in order to be able to enjoy all 
natural phases of living. He should understand that 



io6 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

he is related to the physical plane through his bodily- 
senses and that the varying needs and requirements 
of the body should all be fittingly observed. He 
should be no more the ascetic than the glutton, but 
live his physical life in a thoroughly poised manner, 
getting real pleasure from such living. In his mental 
life he should learn to cultivate his mind and be able 
to give clear expression to his thoughts, for the de- 
velopment of beautiful imagination adds greater hap- 
piness to his life than does any physical pleasure. His 
mind should be taught to rule or direct his physical 
nature, because it is one step higher in the evolution of 
his life. He should never strain the mind or allow it 
to become either too relaxed or too tense, because just 
as sure as the pendulum swings too far in one direc- 
tion, it must swing correspondingly far in the other. 
Self-control is something that each one must work for, 
and only by working for it will it come. Live the 
mental life to the full. Know as much as it is possible 
to know, but neither overuse nor underuse the mind 
and expect to be happy in so doing. Happiness is the 
result of right mental living. 

Again, the mind should be under the dominion of 
the spirit ; for the spirit in man is the controlling fac- 
tor in life. Love and joy, faith and hope, and all 
qualities kindred to these constitute in man the real 
dynamic of life, the light that is to illumine the whole 
life, the power that is to be expressed through every- 
thing man does. Remember that all three of these 
varying phases of life exist all the way from the ele- 
mental man up. Only in the elemental man they are 
rudimentary, while in the highly civilised man they 
have become a more conscious realisation. From first 
to last, all proceeds from the indwelling spirit; from 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 107 

first to last, it is a state of consciousness, of realising 
in part or in whole. 

It is a mistake on the part of the vocal master or 
student to think that the voice can be developed 
through a study of anatomy or physiology. Sooner 
or later they will come to see that knowledge of the 
various planes of life and conformity to the require- 
ments of these planes will bring about the desired end 
in a shorter time and a better way. Art means mak- 
ing the best possible form through which the tone 
can be expressed. Ruskin says: ''High art consists 
neither in altering nor in improving nature; but in 
seeking throughout nature for whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are pure; in loving these, 
in displaying to the utmost of the painter's power 
such loveliness as is in them, and directing the 
thoughts of others by winning art, or gentle empha- 
sis. Art (cseteris paribus) is great in exact propor- 
tion to the love of beauty shown by the painter, 
provided that the love of beauty forfeit no atom of 
truth." What Ruskin wrote concerning painting, an 
art that has far less of inner revelation than has 
music, is also true of music, only in a much greater 
way. If the painter is not to sacrifice an atom of 
truth, surely in an art like music, which is the very 
soul of all arts, there must be far less occasion for 
any sacrifices. A great singer like Jenny Lind will, 
first of all, use her voice for the glory of God. God 
gave her the voice, God gave her the health, feeling, 
and beauty that lived in her soul, and she glorified 
God through singing the songs that would enlighten 
and uplift the souls of men and women. The great- 
est glory we can render God is loving service to man- 
kind. When composers, singers, and instrumental 



io8 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

musicians realise that they are the true prophets and 
priests of God, then they will try, in order to be of 
greater service to mankind, to purify both their minds 
and bodies; thereby fitting themselves to become re- 
ceptive to the indwelling Spirit, and thus be able to 
render the best service to their fellow-man. 

It is a singular thing that notwithstanding how large 
a number of the greatest men who ever lived have 
attached such value to music, the world as a whole 
to-day still continues to consider it as something apart 
from what they call practical living. Surely anything 
that can change the nature of man or beast, and 
make the intractable, tractable, anything, too, that can 
awaken such a sense of joy and satisfaction, must have 
in it something more practical than the mere pleasure 
of eating a good dinner or drinking a glass of wine. 
The trouble is that comparatively few people ever think 
deeply concerning anything in life. The customary 
or the conventional thought of the people one asso- 
ciates with is taken for granted, no matter how right 
or hov/ wrong it may be ; it is the easy way that people 
seek. Why not? They pay their doctors to care for 
their bodies and clergymen to save their souls. Goethe 
was right when he wrote: 

"To customary roads men still will link 
Their faith — poor dolts — imagining they think!" 

It IS still more singular that those who are so inti- 
mately associated with music, — the ordinary com- 
poser, the singer, or the instrumental musician, — 
should know so little of the power with which they 
are dealing; while people like Darwin, Spencer, 
Schopenhauer, Carlyle, and many other great men 
whose work did not really come within the province 



NATURE AND ART IN SINGING 109 

of music, nevertheless were conscious in a far greater 
way of the magical power and beauty of music than 
either the musician or the musical critic. Said Carlyle : 
"Music is a kind of inarticulate unfathomable speech 
which leads us to the edge of the infinite, and lets us, 
for moments, gaze into it." Schopenhauer says: "The 
world is but realised music." He might have gone 
still farther and said the universe is an expression of 
divine music ; that the morning stars did sing together 
and have ever continued to sing together ; that love and 
its expression, music, are fundamental to all form, to 
all expression. When people begin to think and when 
they know music better than fhey do, then the expres- 
sion of music will be universal. It will not be neces- 
sary to teach people how to sing, for all will sing, 
from the youngest to the oldest, and all life will be- 
come realised music. Oh, that the composers and 
singers, and those who play instrumental music, and 
the critics of music might be made to realise that the 
influence and power exerted by them could bring to 
the life of man such untold satisfaction, such joy and 
peace, that the whole world might be made to rejoice ! 
If for once they could realise the truth that they have 
a far greater power than any priesthood, a greater 
power than the kings of the earth, surely new effort, 
new aspirations, new desire would come into their 
lives in order that they might give to music the high- 
est and best expression. This day will come, and it 
will not be very long delayed, because' the old world is 
ready for a new spring-time, a further renaissance, 
and instead of being ruled by the dead thoughts and 
forms of by-gone ages, it will enter into full universal 
consciousness of the rhythm, melody, and harmony of 
celestial music. 



CHAPTER IX 

COLOUR TONICS 

**White knowledge, if we win it, 

Is granted from One Source — for joy and dolour — 

To whomso hath it, Prince, or Man, or Beast, 

Yet, as each crystal by its inner colour 

Stains the pure beam enkindled from the East, 

So shall the nation of each soul, endoubled 

By will on mind, dye fair or dark that ray." 

— Sir Edwin Arnold. 
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever: 

Its loveliness increases; it will never 

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep f 

Full of weet dreams and health and quiet breathing." 

— Keats. 

As music has its tonic, mediant, and dominant notes 
represented in their order by the first, third, and fifth 
notes of the octave, so colour has its fundamental or 
tonic in the red, its mediant in the yellow, and its 
dominant in the blue; all the secondary colours being 
but reflections and refractions of the three primaries. 
Very few people who have investigated the subjects 
of sound and colour will take other than the position 
that there must be a very intimate relationship be- 
tween the two. While there are many things that have 
not been made satisfactorily clear to the minds of in- 
vestigators, nevertheless, we know, that after sound 
vibration ceases ; as far as the human ear is concerned, 
vibration still continues, and that thirty-four octaves 
from the ending of what we are pleased to call sound 
vibrations, we find the beginning of the first note in 
the octave of colour. The interesting fact that there 

110 



COLOUR TONICS iii 

IS an instrument used by the blind to hear light, to 
which I have referred in another chapter, would seem 
to establish beyond all doubt that the principal differ- 
ence between light and sound colour is simply a ques- 
tion of vibration. 

Some years ago I knew a little girl who, whenever 
she heard a selection played on the piano or other musi- 
cal instrument, would designate it by some colour, 
calling one piece blue, another red, and still another 
yellow; in fact, using all the colours to designate the 
different compositions. It was a peculiar fact that she 
never made a mistake in referring to the colours of the 
various selections. A piece once red was always red, 
and this was accounted for by her statement that as she 
listened to each one she saw its colour. Many times 
she was tested to see whether she would not make 
some mistake, but she never did. Each had its own 
particular colour, and no other. Even after she had 
grown to womanhood, she still declared she saw colour 
connected with all the music to which she listened. 

This question of colour in its relation to sound 
might prove one of great interest to the student, but 
my object in dealing with it in this case is to bring 
out something of practical value. In the healing of 
the sick, I give music the chief place of importance, 
but I look upon colour as a necessary adjunct to it, 
and believe that its use may greatly enhance the value 
of music. 

Just as I write this chapter, I have, before my vision, 
a beautiful green lawn, and at the end of the lawn a 
great clump of rose-bushes, covered with a profusion 
of beautiful red roses. As I sit on the ground, I 
notice two things: that the green lawn brings to me 
something of a very restful state of mind, but if I 



112 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

look at the roses for any length of time I find that 
the mind becomes more active, because red is a real 
tonic to both mental and physical activity. It is the 
colour red that corresponds to blood, to life; and red 
really symbolises life. On its lowest octave red repre- 
sents, first of all, physical life with all its activities. 
We have every reason to believe that it was the first 
colour caught by the eye of man, or, rather, it was the 
first colour to which man became attuned, and all 
colour which the eye has since been able to see has 
been gradual in its unfolding. There is a necessary 
state, or condition, in the life of man, that must come 
into being before he can respond to all the notes in the 
first great octave of colour. For colour has its octaves 
in the same way that sound has octaves. But we have 
at present more than ten octaves of sound, and only 
one of colour. We have certain colours which we 
call warm or luminous: red, orange, yellow, and light 
green; but in the new octave of colour, we shall find 
much more of the luminous than we are able to per- 
ceive at the present. Higher rates of vibration will 
add very greatly to the wonder of the spectrum. I 
am inclined to think that the lover of colour gradu- 
ally comes to see more and more in every tint and hue, 
more tone and more of the harmony that Nature pro- 
duces in her marvellous combinations of colour. 

People who need to have their physical activities 
awakened will find much that will be helpful in the 
varying degrees and the tones of the colour red, more 
or less modified by combination with certain other 
colours, for to many people, red would serve only to 
excite, without benefiting. We know that red pro- 
duces a very distinct antagonism in some animals. It 
stirs them to destructive effort and, to some degree. 



COLOUR TONICS 113 

this holds good in regard to some people. It so works 
upon the emotional nature, that only superficial emo- 
tions are awakened. Undoubtedly, red serves to 
awaken more of the subconsciousness of man's purely 
physical or elemental life than any other single colour. 
The colour red, like certain kinds of music, inspires 
men to battle. The people who wish to overthrow the 
existing order of things choose a red flag in prefer- 
ence to one of any other colour. Red, being the funda- 
mental colour, should, when people are rightly ad- 
justed to it, be constructive, but, through failure to 
adjust, red represents, to a very marked degree, the 
destructive side of life. With the beginning of a new 
octave, in which red will again be the tonic or funda- 
mental note, there will come with it in human life 
greater vitality and a far greater degree of construc- 
tiveness. Red represents, in a very decided way, 
energy in motion, but it is well to remember that 
energy in motion should be of an orderly action, and 
red can only get its balance in connection with yellow, 
the mediant note in colour, and blue, the dominant 
note. What is needed is balance. Yellow, standing 
between red and blue, produces the balance that should 
of necessity exist. Yellow stands, in this relation, 
representative of thought and reason. We might say 
that it relates man on one side to that which is of the 
earth, earthy, and on the other side to that which is 
of the heavens, heavenly. It represents thought and 
reason ; it may be truly said to be representative of the 
mind of man. The colour yellow inspires thought, 
therefore it is not so restful to the mind as green or 
blue. It plays practically the same part in the mental 
that red does in the physical life. It stirs to a new 
condition of activity — the activity of the mental plane. 



114 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Between the vibrations of red, the first note, and 
yellow, the third note, there comes into being the 
second note. We might say that red is the father and 
yellow the mother, and orange is the child. And the 
child partakes of the qualities of both father and 
mother. It is the colour which establishes the equilib- 
rium between the first and the third note, as, in a 
greater way, equilibrium is established by the mediant, 
or third note, between the first and the fifth. As yel- 
low is related, on one side, to spirit, and on the other 
to matter, so orange is related to the physical and 
the mental, and in its uses for the healing of the sick, 
these two factors must be taken into consideration. 
With some people it has enough of red in it to stir 
them to physical activity and with others it has enough 
of the yellow to stir to mental activity. 

I feel certain that means will be found to combine 
music and colour in a thoroughly scientific way, so 
that colour may work in harmony with music for the 
healing of every kind of sickness. But it will be es- 
sential to discover the effect of colour on the mind and 
the emotions of people just as it will be necessary to 
know the kind of music to give, according to the tem- 
perament and the needs of the patient. 

People at different times have reached what seemed 
to them satisfactory conclusions concerning the bene- 
ficial action of colour on human life. Some thirty 
years ago we had what was known as the blue glass 
craze, when it was thought that all kinds of diseases 
were going to be healed through the use of the blue 
ray. Practical experience gave little, if any result. 
People may say this proves that colour is of little bene- 
fit, if any, in the healing of the sick, but I do not 
think it proves anything of the kind. We do not get 



COLOUR TONICS 115 

music simply by sounding one note of a chord, but 
rather through a combination of notes, and heaHng 
will not come from any one colour, but rather from 
the combining of the colours. There are major and 
minor chords in colour just as much as there are in 
music, and these major and minor chords are going 
to affect people in different ways and degrees. That 
which will prove a real tonic for one person, may not 
have a beneficial effect upon another. In every case, 
there must be a thorough diagnosis of the patient's 
needs and the correspondence for these needs should 
be found both in music and in colour. If music and 
colour are to be used for the healing of the sick, then 
they will only accomplish a real good when they are 
used in thoroughly scientific ways. Many experiments 
may have to be tried before those scientific ways are 
discovered, but it is through experiment that, even- 
tually, the truth is established. 

Between the yellow and the blue we have green. 
The light green that lies close to the yellow in the 
spectrum, is the last of the luminous or warm colours. 
It takes its warmth very largely from the yellow. The 
dark green, which comes nearest to blue, is a light- 
absorbing colour. Perhaps, of all colours, green is the 
most soothing and quieting. If a person has been 
under great excitement or intense strain, the medium 
or the dark greens will produce a more restful and re- 
laxing condition than any of the other colours. 

Blue is the fifth, or dominant note in colour. It 
represents more of what may be called man's spiritual 
consciousness than any other of the preceding notes. 
In the spectroscope it shades from its lightest tint into 
indigo. It is called a non-luminous colour, and also 
a cold colour. Lord Rayleigh said that the blue colour 



ii6 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

of the sky is due to the scattering of Hght by small, 
suspended particles and air molecules which are most 
effective in the case of shorter waves. The green 
colour of sea-water near the shore is also due to a 
scattering of light. The scattering of light has its per- 
fect correspondence in that blue represents such quali- 
ties as truth, faith, and hope. We might call it the 
colour that diffuses light, and, while we may call it a 
cold colour, it has in its nature the restfulness that 
tends to make one more receptive to the real inner life. 
It is cold in comparison with red and orange, but it 
is a real life-giving colour. We might say that it is 
the first real colour that brings man into closer rela- 
tionship with the things that are not seen. Blue stands 
essentially for truth and it is the truth that makes for 
freedom. Sometimes we speak of a man as being 
''true blue," that is, a man who is to be thoroughly 
trusted. 

Within the last few years we have heard much about 
the wonderful effects of ultra-violet rays, the colour 
not as yet seen by our organs of sight, yet apparently 
possessing more chemical power than the whole octave 
of colour below it. Already it has been found that it 
can be put to use for destructive ends and purposes in 
a way in which no other colour can be used. It is a 
singular thing that man so often turns his discoveries 
in nature to destructive ends before he finds out their 
higher and better uses. Though the ultra-violet ray 
carries within itself the power to destroy, later it will 
be found that its energy can be used for thoroughly 
constructive purposes. If the opening note in a new 
octave of colour contains so much power, how much 
more power is the whole octave likely to reveal? 
And this only symbolises the power that is resi- 



COLOUR TONICS 117 

dent in the life of man when he is able to hear and to 
perceive that which at one time was thought to be un- 
attainable; for the unattainable is only so to a partial 
consciousness. To the full consciousness, all things 
become possible. All things are ours when we know 
how to use them, for man will sooner or later lay hold 
of the fruits of the tree of life, and eat thereof, and 
live forever. 

Bright violet is one of the most spiritual of colours. 
On one side it draws from the indigo, and on the other 
from the invisible red. The first note, as it were, in 
the new octave of colour. Indigo is considered one 
of the most enduring of colours, while violet fades 
more quickly than any other, and the reason for this 
is that violet, being the last note in the first octave of 
colour, draws quite as much from the invisible red as 
it does from the indigo. There is a new octave of 
colour that some people are beginning to perceive 
dimly. In one way, in this new octave, all the colours 
are the same, just as we have the same notes in each 
octave of music, but any given note of the next octave 
above requires twice the number of vibrations to pro- 
duce it. So it will eventually be found that the colour 
red and all the succeeding colours of a new octave of 
colour will have their vibrations redoubled, and the 
intensity of the vibration in its new octave will add 
much to the life-giving power of colour. 

Let me sum up, in a brief way, the effect of colour 
on the mind, and consequently on the body. Red tends 
to excite to activity, so that people who are sensitive 
and excitable should avoid the use of this colour. 
Orange, in a lesser way, produces similar effects. 
These two colours more nearly represent the elemental 
side of life. Yellow, to a degree, would excite to men- 



ii8 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

tal activity, but that activity is not expressed through 
the physical, to the same degree as red or orange. 
Green, in its varying shades, is really the most sooth- 
ing and restful of all colours. The very lightest 
shades of green that come under the head of luminous 
colours are not so restful as the darker shades ; but the 
luminous shades of green may often be used to quicken 
the mentality of sensitive-minded people who have be- 
come mentally morbid or sluggish. Some shades of 
blue are very restful. They seem to call out some- 
thing of the inner rest and peace of life, but the darker 
shades tend toward making one mentally and physi- 
cally torpid. The darker shades of blue might be of 
great help to one who was hysterical or highly excited. 
Many physicians advise that the rooms of their pa- 
tients be kept darkened. Others go to the other ex- 
treme, and are in favor of a great deal of light. It 
seems to me that good judgment must be exercised in 
the use of light. In diseases accompanied by fever or 
mental excitement, the light should be of a soft or 
subdued nature, while in many kinds of chronic dis- 
eases, where mind and body are both sluggish, and 
vitality is low, great light is needed to stir to greater 
activity of mind and body. Too much light of a glar- 
ing nature is not good for even a healthy person. It 
is apt to induce mental restlessness and physical lan- 
guor. I have carefully noted the effects of light and 
heat in Italy and Florida. The Italian people during 
the summer do comparatively little work in the middle 
of the day; many of them resting for several hours 
before returning to their business or work. In this 
way they seem to be able to accomplish more than the 
people who continue to work throughout the day. I 
have known very wide-awake and energetic people 



COLOUR TONICS 119 

who have gone from New England to Florida, and 
for a time they have been able to keep up their mental 
and physical activities for the same number of hours 
as they had formerly done in the North. But after a 
time they grew mentally sluggish and physically in- 
active. Possibly, if they had used the same methods 
that the Italians use, this condition need never have 
arisen. The fact of the matter is that temperance in 
everything is necessary for the best mental and physi- 
cal poise. The Italian, when he goes home at noon- 
time, goes there for repose, for rest, so that later he 
may take up his work and carry it on in a vigorous 
way. The curtains and blinds are all closed on the 
sunny side of his house, and the windows are open on 
the shady side. In this way, even when the weather 
is very hot, he does not feel it to the same degree that 
people do who have not established his habits. Shade, 
especially in the summer-time, is helpful to mental con- 
templation, to rest and repose of mind and body. But 
too often people who have been sick for a long time 
feel that the room should be darkened; this, instead 
of making for rest of mind and body, will bring about 
mental depression, and it often has the effect of in- 
ducing melancholia. 

Every disease of mind and body has its own partic- 
ular psychology, and unless the physician is fully alive 
to this fact, he will make many mistakes in his efforts 
to effect cures. Let it once be fully understood that 
the causes of disease are of a psychological nature, 
and that it will only be through a real psychology 
which is able to perceive the nature of these causes and 
to know how to meet them in a thoroughly scientific, 
psychological way, that the real science of healing will 
be advanced. The study into the physical pathology 



I20 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

and the morbid anatomy of disease has done far more 
to retard true heaHng than perhaps almost any or all 
other factors introduced into medicine. Too much 
time and attention have been given to the morbid and 
unreal side of life. What the world needs to-day is a 
far deeper insight and a more comprehensive knowl- 
edge as to how life can best be lived so that diseases 
may be avoided. We need to know first of all how to 
live, and the physicians of the future will pay far less 
attention to drug medication, and other kindred things 
that they deem so necessary at the present time, and 
will devote their time to more natural ways of treat- 
ing their patients. The treatment of the future, in- 
stead of filling the mind with fear, as too often it does 
at the present, will not only rob the mind of fear, but 
will give pleasure as well to the patient. For music 
and colour will of a certainty supersede the present 
poisonous drug system. While there may be other 
things used in connection with them, yet they will 
form the fundamentals from which a new structure of 
health and healing shall rise. 

Each step in the unfolding of colour to the human 
vision means an upward step in the development of 
humanity. There is a law of correspondence, wherein 
cuter changes symbolise changes in man's inner life. 
Nature is not to be viewed as something separate and 
apart from man's life. It is the same Life that lives 
and moves in nature, that lives and moves and has its 
being in man. Nature symbolises what man has been 
and what man is, and in man's fuller development, 
nature will still continue to keep the record. With 
the higher development, there will come a greater ap- 
preciation of everything that is beautiful, and this ap- 
preciation will have the effect of causing man to vi- 



COLOUR TONICS 121 

brate to a higher octave of being. The vibration thus 
set up in his own Hfe will bring him in touch with 
nature's higher vibrations. Not only will he see with 
new eyes, but hear with new ears ; for seeing and hear- 
ing are both indications of a progressive state of be- 
ing. The man who closes his eyes to the beauties of 
nature will eventually be unable to perceive such beau- 
ties. The man who closes his ears to the melody, 
rhythm, and harmony of life will gradually lose what 
hearing he has. For "unto every one that hath, shall 
be given; and from him that hath not, even that he 
hath shall be taken away from him." "He that hath 
eyes, let him see ; and he that hath ears, let him hear." 
Through such seeing and hearing, greater desires and 
larger ideals will enter into life, for everything that is 
true in man's consciousness is there in order that it 
shall be realised. All inner truths are capable of outer 
expression. The beauties of colour and music have 
for us a thousand times more value than either eye 
hath seen or ear hath heard. It will be through foster- 
ing the love of colour, and seeing all there is to see in 
it that the new octave of colour will come. First of 
all, it will be seen by the mind's eye ; later it will take 
on an outward manifestation. The rainbow is most 
assuredly a symbol of hope, and the double rainbow 
gives us the assurance that we may hope for a new 
octave of colour, and that our hope shall be fully 
realised. 

Most people, at one time or another, have been 
thrilled and inspired by some glorious sunrise or sun- 
set. Sometimes we feel as though we were almost in 
the presence of God, and we lose all desire to speak, 
caring only to drink in the beauty of the scene. This 
is not merely a passing incident, but it is one that the 



122 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

mind continues to retain. The writer has in mind a 
sunset that he can never forget, a sunset that stirred 
him to greater depths of feeHng than any sermon he 
has ever heard. Surely that which can produce such 
a lasting effect upon the mind must also leave its im- 
press upon the body. I believe that, as man becomes 
more attuned to nature, through the love of all that is 
beautiful, not only will his mind be benefited, but his 
whole being — soul, mind, and body — will be quickened 
and renewed. The trouble with us all to-day is that 
we are out of tune, that we are not adjusted in a har- 
monious way either to nature or to our fellow-men, 
and it will be only through becoming adjusted that we 
can come into harmony with the Universal Spirit, be- 
cause man works from that which is partial to that 
which is whole and complete. We know that plants 
and trees are constantly giving off something which is 
helpful to the life of man, and that man is, as con- 
stantly exhaling or giving out something that is bene- 
ficial to the growth of plants and trees. Without 
doubt we are giving in a limited way, both consciously 
and unconsciously, not only to the tree and plant, but 
also to our fellow-man as well. But are we giving to 
each other all that we might give? Does there exist 
that full reciprocity of giving and receiving that 
should be constantly going on between man and his 
fellow-man? It seem.s as though this giving and re- 
ceiving should become an ever-increasing thing in the 
life of man; but, in order to make it so, a conscien- 
tious effort toward a new and a better adjustment will 
prove necessary. Man can hope to enter into the King- 
dom of God only through the use of his love nature. 
In the Kingdom of God only that which is beautiful, 
that which is harmonious, that which is true can be 



COLOUR TONICS 123 

said to exist. If he bring the best to it, he will receive 
the best from it. 

The spirit of love in man ever makes for oneness. 
Whatever we love we become one with, and there is 
at once set up a reciprocal giving and receiving, which 
makes quite as much for our own good as it does for 
the good of the person who is loved by us. This love 
should not be a selfish one wherein the thought upper- 
most is that of receiving, because all real receiving 
must come because of previous giving. An honest ef- 
fort to appreciate the beauties of nature will bring to 
us far more than we could possibly hope to get through 
the lack of appreciation. The more we are able to 
see of good in others or of beauty in nature, the more 
we shall continue to see in both. Nature yields her 
secrets to those only who are in love with her. 

"O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me 
What this strong music in the soul may be ! 
What, and wherein it doth exist, 
This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist, 
This beautiful and beauty-making power. 

Joy, virtuous Lady ! Joy that ne'er was given, 
Save to the pure, and in their purest hour, 
Life, and life's effluence, cloud at once and shower, \ 

Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power, 
Which wedding nature gives to us in dower, 

A new Earth and new Heaven, 
Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud — 
Joy is the sweet voice, Joy the luminous cloud — 

We in ourselves rejoice ! 
And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight, 

All melodies the echoes of that voice, 
All colours a suffusion from that light." 

There is a deep significance in the Bible statement 
about the kings and princes being clothed in purple 
and fine linen. Purple represented, at that time, the 
highest degree of colour. It signified power and all 



124 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

that was highest in life. The fine Hnen was of purest 
white. It is the white that gives us all the colours. 
The white stands for purity and the purple was its 
highest manifestation, and represented spiritual power. 
The real prince or king only becomes so through over- 
coming, and all overcoming is the result of inner 
purity of mind and purpose, and the outer expression 
evidenced by power. Before one can be clothed in 
purple and fine linen, the battle of self-control must 
be fought and won. Solomon has said that: "He that 
ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." 
For the real battle of life is not a warfare with others 
as much as it is a battle within one's self to overcome 
false thoughts and unreal emotions ; a constant putting 
behind of the old, and as constant a pressing forward 
to that which is new. It is only in this way that one 
attains the real Kingship and becomes conscious of 
lasting power. 



CHAPTER X 

KEYNOTE TO HEALTH HARMONY 

"And ever against eating cares 
Lap me in soft Lydian airs; 
Married to immortal verse 
Such as the meeting soul may pierce, 
In notes with many a winding bout 
Of linked sweetness long drawn out; 
With wanton heed, and giddy cunning. 
The melting voice through mazes running; 
Untwisting all the chains that tie 
The hidden soul of harmony." — Milton. 

"Since then, though heard on earth no more, 
Devotion and her daughter love 
Still bid the bursting spirit soar 
To sounds that seem as from above. 
In dreams that day's broad light can not remove." 

— Byron. 

It is a well-known fact that music may be made 
to quicken or retard the beating of the pulse. This 
shows something of its action upon the heart and 
consequently upon other parts of the body. Under 
the influence of music we readily see that new states 
of vibration are set up. When the vibration is ex- 
cessive it will be followed by a reactionary condition, 
for Nature is always trying to establish equilibrium. 
If we are led to one extreme, then, before poise can 
be established, we swing over to the other extreme; 
therefore, that which may prove beneficial up to a 
certain point, beyond that point may become harm- 
ful. All unnatural or excessive stimulation induced 
by the seeker after health cannot bring about the 
desired end. Temperance must be observed in music 

125 



126 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

as well as in everything else. There can be musi- 
cal intoxication which may become as unhealthy to 
mind and body as strong drink. A person should 
use the same good judgment in the question of music 
as he would use in any other matter in life. 

In the healing of the sick by music, many things 
must be taken into consideration, and the question 
of temperament plays an important part. We must 
not think that the music which would be helpful to 
one is going to prove most advantageous to another. 
Only in the most general way can laws be laid down 
for the giving of musical treatment. Each person in 
the last analysis must be made an individual study so 
that the particular need may become known and the 
right music supplied in the fulfilling of that need. 
In a general way one might formulate or suggest 
methods that would undoubtedly prove more or less 
satisfactory in possibly the majority of cases. For 
instance, when a patient is feverish and restless, quiet- 
ing music would generally tend to bring rest, and to a 
marked degree dispel the fever. Again, to those peo- 
ple who have lost a great deal of vitality and whose 
life currents are at a low ebb, music beginning very 
quietly at first, but gradually increasing in volume and 
suggesting a great deal of brightness and hope, would 
exert a renewing power on both mind and body. In 
cases of melancholia, music having considerable vari- 
ety, with a motive of joy in it, would tend to attract 
the patient's attention away from his self-centered 
condition and to awaken new thoughts and interests 
in his mind. Whenever it is found that there is too 
much mental or physical tension, music should be used 
in such a way as to produce thorough relaxation of 
mind and body. A patient should be shown that in 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 127 

listening to music no mental effort is required, that it 
is much better, while listening, to give the mind an 
entire rest and to enjoy the music without effort of 
any kind. The only way to get the best from it is 
to give one's self up to it and not try to understand 
it through mind, but just to feel it as one might feel 
the warmth or the glow of a fire without having 
necessarily to think much about it; in other words, 
to enter into the enjoyment of it without effort. All 
tension, whether mental or physical, should be over- 
come through soothing or restful music. All devital- 
ised or too relaxed conditions should be overcome by 
music with action and purpose in it, music to vitalise 
and renew. For sleeplessness, monotonous, soothing 
music is required, where the theme repeats itself over 
and over, the music rising and falling in a rhythmic 
way, much as a mother might sing to her child in 
order to put it to sleep. And yet such music should 
have nothing of the mournful in it, but rather some 
happy theme such as the singing of the birds, the run- 
ning of the brooks, the swaying of the grain, the 
beauty of the flowers, and all things that would call 
out the sense of beauty with a sense of rest. Slug- 
gish circulation may be quickened through bright, 
lively music. 

I think, however, that the person who would give 
musical treatment in a musical way should be thor- 
oughly trained for his work. The vocal or instru- 
mental musician must have all the qualifications of 
which the successful mental healer Is possessed. The 
one who would make a profession of healing mental 
and physical disease with music must be a thorough 
judge of character, in order to be able to understand 
the needs of the patient; he must exercise the best 



128 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

of judgment in the music he selects; he must watch 
as carefully to note the effects produced by it, as a 
medical doctor would watch to note the effects of his 
medicine; he must take a very thorough and sympa- 
thetic interest in his patient and he must also be thor- 
oughly in love with his work; he must remember in 
his production of music that no matter how good it 
may be in a technical way, technique only will not 
prove sufficient; he must be able to put his whole 
heart and mind into his music in order to reach the 
heart and mind of his patient. Very often a person 
whose technique is not of the best can put a great 
deal more of heart and soul into his music and get 
better results from it than can another who is perhaps 
more technically correct, but who puts only his men- 
tality and physical technique into his vocal or instru- 
mental music. It is the magnetic singer who stirs 
the audience, and magnetism is far more the result 
of what one feels than of what one thinks. The think- 
ing may add to the artistic value, but the feeling is 
absolutely necessary if one wishes to convey to another 
the real soul of music, the life-giving and the life- 
inspiring part of it. The mind is always quickened 
and renewed through the awakened soul, and this 
quickening and renewing in turn sets up a new phys- 
ical vibration causing one's outer life to respond to 
the inner music and express itself in physical harmony 
and health. 

Harmony is really the great keynote of life. The 
thoroughly adjusted, harmonious soul, while continu- 
ing in this state, can never be sick, and if there is no 
mental sickness there can be no physical disease. For 
in every state of bodily weakness or disease there will 
be found a corresponding mental condition. If that 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 129 

mental condition is changed and is superseded by a 
wholesome, natural condition of mind, the body is 
quick to respond. Our bodies may be said to be the 
mirrors of our minds. Some might object to this 
statement, saying that certain diseases are contagious, 
and that the individual could in no way be respon- 
sible for his trouble, because he had not produced it 
through any mental action of his own, but had caught 
it from another. Nevertheless, there was a mental 
action of his own v/hich made it possible for him 
to take disease from the other. Negative-minded peo- 
ple are the people who catch diseases. People who 
have strong wills, who are thoroughly courageous, and 
who look at life from its most optimistic side, are not 
nearly so liable to catch contagious diseases as are 
those of a more fearful disposition; of these latter, 
medical doctors say they are unable to offer resistance 
when they come in contact with diseases of a con- 
tagious character. People may make it possible 
through negative, gloomy, or despondent thoughts to 
take on the diseases of others, and they themselves 
must bear the full responsibility, because they have 
not attuned or adjusted themselves to life in a truly 
scientific way. 

Some time we shall come to know that what we 
sow we reap ; that it is possible for each individual 
to so relate himself to the rest of humanity that he 
will only attract or draw to himself that which is 
good, that which is mentally uplifting and physically 
strengthening. But it is also true that through nega- 
tive or morbid, despondent thought one does attract 
to one's self not only the discordant, unrestful 
thoughts of others, but also their physical troubles. 
We set in motion the causes which bring to us health 



130 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

and strength, or weakness and disease, and we are 
responsible for the causes set in motion and the ef- 
fects that we reap. If the causes are good, the effects 
are good ; so our lives are really what we make theni. 
Doubtless we make mistakes, often all unconscious of 
what we are doing, but it is quite possible for us to 
profit by our errors if we really desire to do so. It 
is not necessary for anyone who has violated the laws 
that make for harmonious living to continue doing so 
indefinitely. If it is possible for man to make mis- 
takes in life, it is just as possible for him to correct 
them and to refrain from making other mistakes of 
a similar nature. "If a man is unhappy, this must 
be his own fault ; for God made all men to be happy." 
(Epictetus.) 

Man may be likened to a highly attuned instrument, 
which, whenever the keys are touched in right rela- 
tion, gives forth melodic, as well as harmonic, music; 
but, at times, he allows the keys to get out of tune, 
and instead of harmony he produces discord. One 
needs not only to keep the instrument constantly in 
tune, but also to keep it constantly in use; otherwise 
the strings grow rusty and do not give forth beauty 
of sound. The person who is mentally harmonious 
and physically whole is in possession of a body that 
is constantly giving forth musical vibration. Through 
perfect circulation the blood is singing its song of 
life as it goes coursing through the arteries and veins, 
carrying the necessary body-building products to every 
part of the organism; and when one is working in a 
thoroughly natural way without undue tension, all 
the muscles of the body that are being used, small 
and great, are also giving forth musical sounds, so 
that the whole body may be said to be singing its 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 131 

harmonious song of life, because the man is rightly 
attuned to his inner life and to his outer environment. 

Every time a violinist plays he carefully tunes his 
instrument. If he failed to do this, he would not 
be able to produce the wonder of rhythm, melody, and 
harmony that he is capable of giving out through 
the use of his violin. The human body is not only a 
violin, but a whole orchestra of musical instruments ; 
how much more necessary is it, then, that all those 
instruments should be in perfect tune ! It would seem 
absurd on the part of the violinist to tune his violin 
one day and, after laying it aside, say it would be 
unnecessary to retune it on the morrow. Perhaps 
during the interval the temperature might increase or 
decrease, the weather become very damp or very dry, 
making it imperative on his part when next he wished 
to play, to retune his instrument in a thorough way. 
Sometimes in life we make new adjustments and find 
everything very lovely and harmonious, and we have 
the hope that this condition is to continue without 
further effort, but it will no more do so than the violin 
will continue giving out beautiful music when there 
has been failure to keep it in tune. 

In the true adjustment to life it is necessary for 
anyone who wishes to retain his healthy, happy con- 
dition, to make new adjustments for every morrow; 
for, in growing, no one should feel that any two days 
of his life are going to be exactly the same. Man 
is in constant need of daily attunement or of renewed 
adjustment to both the inner and outer consciousness 
of life. All harmonious thought pictures entering the 
mind of man make for mental and physical construct- 
iveness, and all discordant or inharmonious thought 
pictures make for unrest of mind and disease of body. 



132 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that music 
should be made to convey to the mind not only a 
sense of beauty, but a sense of power; not only a 
sense of peace, but a sense of action; and that all 
this power and peace should be worked out through 
harmonious action and beauty of expression. 

Life was intended to be lived not in part but to the 
full in everything that can make for truly harmoni- 
ous living. In striking the keys of life we shall not 
always produce harmony, but it is through constant 
practice that real knowledge and harmony are ob- 
tained. We should remember, too, that whatever we 
bring to life we receive back from life again ; that the 
discords we create for others come back to us re- 
doubled; that the harmonies by which we are able to 
brighten and uplift the lives of our fellow-men, are 
returned to us in an ever-increasing way to bless and 
to comfort our own lives. This is the law, and all may 
reap the joy and the gladness of life, its strength and 
its perfection, its love and its hope, if they so will. 
We only come to know and to understand things or 
people through learning to love them. It is through 
loving understanding that the clouds of life are dis- 
pelled, and the real appreciation of anything or any 
person comes. 

There are many people who have little, if any, ap- 
preciation of music, who look upon it as something 
tiresome, and they often say that it bores them to dis- 
traction. Such people may often be highly developed 
intellectually, but it cannot be said of them that they 
have much knowledge of the inner life; neither can 
they have entered, to any marked degree, into the 
pleasures of the outer life, because music does enter 
into and enrich all the varying phases of life, and the 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 133 

one who has rounded out on any plane from the physi- 
cal up must have entered into the joys and sorrows 
of life as conveyed through the medium of music. It 
is only the one who lives the partial life who is able, 
to a degree, to appreciate some things while overlook- 
ing others. The fuller life is able to enter into and 
get good from everything. Whatever we know our- 
selves to be deficient in, that is the one thing we should 
try to cultivate. Life can only be understood in a 
whole and complete way through knowing it and liv- 
ing it. We may say that we can profit to a degree 
by the experience of others, but, after all, it is only 
the one who has lived who really knows. 

In the healing by music most people consider that 
because music appeals in a far greater degree to one*s 
emotions than to one's thought or reason, it is only 
going to awaken, at best, mian's sensual nature and 
for that reason it would be detrimental rather than 
helpful to one's moral and physical well-being; they 
also give many illustrations of composers, vocal and 
instrumental musicians, who not only had much physi- 
cal illness, but in many cases seemed to show lack of 
all moral perception, people who lived their sense na- 
ture to its full, and they attribute such results very 
largely to music. Granting their assertions to be true, 
we should have to reach the conclusion that music was 
an unwholesome luxury, something to be overcome 
and put away, much as did our Puritan forefathers, 
even as some few religious bodies of the present time 
continue to exclude all except vocal music and bring 
even that to within narrow limits. I do not, however, 
accept their position as true in any but a very partial 
way. Usually musicians, whether they be writers, 
players, or singers of music are exceedingly sensitive, 



134 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

otherwise they would not be musicians. The ear must 
be quick to respond to sound, and if one's feelings 
are reached through this avenue more acutely than 
through some of the other senses, then we can well 
see that the emotional nature is not only awakened but 
produces a far greater effect upon the musician than 
upon people who are not musical. We should know, 
however, that back of sense and back of mind there 
is still something else in man to be appealed to. Man 
is a spiritual being, a soul which can feel all the higher 
harmonies of life, and the right kind of music may be 
made the means of appealing to all this inner sense. 
If music can be made the instant means of awakening 
man's superficial, emotional nature, surely it can pro- 
duce as great results in the awakening of man's spirit- 
ual nature. After all, it will be found that, while 
music can be prostituted to vicious ends and purposes 
wherein all moral sense is lost, yet it can be put to the 
highest ends and purposes to bring about mental, 
moral, and physical regeneration. It can be made to 
preach far greater sermons to man than he has ever 
heard through the spoken word; it can be made to 
reveal the real secrets of the heart which the spoken 
word too often only conceals. Men and women can- 
not lift up their voices in a great anthem of praise to 
the Creator without receiving benefit through the do- 
ing of it, and whatever benefits soul or mind must of 
a necessity benefit the body. Furthermore, people fail 
to perceive that whatever is received by them through 
music is not a temporary possession, but one that lives 
on subconsciously in the mind awaiting at any time 
to be recalled into consciousness, for while consciously 
listening to music, such conscious thought and feeling 
become established as a state of subconsciousness 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 135 

wherein it is recalled over and over again to the con- 
scious mind, reproducing somewhat of the effect upon 
it that it originally produced. Therefore the value of 
music is far greater than if its effect were only mo- 
mentary. 

In relation to the practical side, it will be found 
that the part which the different keys play in music 
will have to be thoroughly studied in any system of 
musical healing. We might say, in a general way, 
that the major keys are representative of the positive 
forces of life, and that the minor keys have to do with 
the more negative conditions. The very highest in 
life, the joy, the hope, the love, the faith can be best 
portrayed through the use of the major keys; and we 
find that composers use the minor keys to express 
much that is sad, morbid, gloomy, hopeless, and emo- 
tional. Not but that the minor keys may be made to 
lend themselves to better things, but they are far more 
readily adapted to express man's superficial, negative 
life than are the major keys. There are many beauti- 
ful compositions in the minor keys which produce a 
sense of rest and peace, and which, under certain con- 
ditions, would prove exceedingly helpful when ab- 
solute rest and peace are required, but it can be said 
of a truth that there is very little written in the minor 
keys that inspires to courage, to strength, or to action. 
I have heard it said that if a body of people had to 
listen to several successive pieces of music written in 
the minor key, that no matter how beautiful the music 
might be, before it was finished numbers of people 
would be found yawning, showing that while it has 
the power of relaxing, it has little, if any, invigorating 
or life-giving power. 

The music of the minor keys undoubtedly serves to 



136 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

relate the listener to the consciousness of the past. It 
continually brings up from the subconscious what 
some term memories, such memories as can only be 
recalled through the suggestion of things kindred or 
similar to them. The subconscious mind of man is a 
great storehouse for superstitions — superstitions that 
have been acquired from the very earliest of times. 
It is a repository also for the mysterious, the morbid, 
and all kinds of unwholesome sentimentalities. Writ- 
ten into it, too, is something of the physical and the 
mental slavery of people of by-gone ages. There is 
no kind of music written in the major key that can 
awaken these past memories to the same degree that 
music written in the minor keys can do. The minor 
keys awaken the morbid, the gloomy, the sorrowful, 
the sad, and from the subconscious mind there come 
trooping up all the old ghosts of a dead past. The 
minor keys, however, may be used to give a great deal 
that is better to life than they usually do. But the 
composer, if he is under the spell of grief or sorrow, 
nineteen times out of twenty will resort to the minor 
key, in order to give expression to it. The minor keys 
are still largely used to give expression to the dark- 
ness of the night, while the major keys find their true 
expression in the light of the day. The former are 
made to depict the sorrows, and the latter the joys of 
life. Minor keys deal with the partial and the incom- 
plete; the major keys make for wholeness and com- 
pleteness. The nations of the earth that are in bond- 
age, the people of the earth who are suffering wrongs, 
all write their music In the minor key because it con- 
veys the emotional, despondent, and depressed state of 
feeling better than could be done with the major keys. 
He, then, who would heal sickness with music must 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 137' 

exercise the greatest care in selecting any music writ- 
ten in the minor key, because of its reactionary ef- 
fects upon the subconscious mind in the calHng up of 
all kinds of disturbing thoughts and emotions. Every 
key in music may be said to have its own characteristic 
expression, but the characteristic of sadness may be 
said to run through all the minor keys. The minor 
keys at best may express romance, beauty, sentiment, 
and kindness, but rarely anything of the greatness or 
the grandeur of life. 

The characteristics of some of the major keys may 
be stated as follows: A major is full of brightness 
and hope: it inspires to sincerity of feeling. Some 
of the brightest and happiest of music has been writ- 
ten in this key. Music written in this key should be 
used in either vocal or instrumental music to inspire 
the patient with the feelings that this particular key 
expresses. C major is a very positive key: it is filled 
with a sense of power and determination, it lends it- 
self to strong, religious impulse. There are many 
compositions by the great composers which prove the 
truth of the foregoing statements. People who are 
inclined to be negative may be greatly helped by music 
in this key as it inspires and stimulates to action. Its 
tendency would be to quicken the circulation of the 
blood. There is much in it that would make for 
youthfulness and activity, mental as well as physical. 
E major lends itself in the greatest way to all that is 
magnificent and grand, it is filled with an abounding 
joy. Some of the world's most brilliant music has 
been written in this key. In giving the major keys 
of A, C, and E we might say that they really sum up 
in themselves all that is greatest in the major keys. 
The other major keys give variations and varieties, 



138 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

but do not give anything, in a sense, that is funda- 
mentally different. 

The healer, then, who employs music as a remedial 
agent should thoroughly familiarise himself with all 
the qualities of every key, and should understand just 
as much as is possible, not only of music but of the 
human mind, in order to make a thorough adaptation 
of music to the needs of the patient. The pioneers in 
this new departure undoubtedly will find many ob- 
stacles in the way. At best, it is not going to be an 
easy matter because the whole subject may be said to 
be founded and grounded in laws that have heretofore 
been understood in only a partial or an imperfect way. 

I have said elsewhere that this book is not intended 
to make known the best ways or methods to be pur- 
sued in the healing of the sick by music and colour, 
but rather to suggest, to point out the possibilities that 
lie in such use. It will be enough for the author to 
know it fulfils its mission by inspiring someone to 
continued effort so that healing through music and 
colour may take its rightful place as one of the great- 
est therapeutic agents to be found in life. 

Doubtless there are many people who will agree 
that music has the power to heal maladies of mind, 
and yet will refuse at the present time to acknowledge 
that it can have any effect in healing diseases of the 
body. But mental maladies are the causes of physi- 
cal disease. If it can heal the mind it will certainly 
heal the body. For the body, at best, is only a mirror 
for one's feelings, for one's thoughts. That system 
of medication which separates mind from body in Its 
healing efforts never has been, and never will be, able 
to accomplish anything worth mentioning. For thou- 
sands of years it has toiled to do this, and for thou- 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 139 

sands of years it has failed. Man must be taken as 
a complete entity not as a threefold being of body, 
mind, and soul, but rather as a soul possessed of mind 
and body. And any system of healing that treats man 
as a purely physical being must in the end come to 
grief. 

A few days after I began writing this chapter, I 
found a paragraph in a London daily paper which I 
quote word for word just as it appeared. "One of 
the most interesting articles in this week's British 
Medical Journal deals with the relation of music to 
medicine. Experiment has shown that when a lively 
air was played on a harp a man's tired muscles almost 
instantly regained their full vigor. The mandolin had 
the same effect. On the other hand, when a violin- 
cello was used the man's arm became almost power- 
less, and his vitality decreased. In nervous and im- 
pressionable subjects the Funeral March of Chopin 
played in a minor key caused diminution of the pulse 
and irregularity of respiration. The same piece after- 
ward played in the major key quickly restored fulness 
to the pulse and regularity to the respiration." This 
is interesting considering the fact that the medical 
faculty is not given to the making of many new de- 
partures. The conservatism of the medical profession 
is, in my opinion, greater than the religious conserva- 
tism of our time. And when we find members of the 
medical profession looking into this subject, it is surely 
a sign of the times. If medicine is going to keep 
abreast of the other professions, it must adopt new 
means and better methods than the drug system which 
no longer holds the respect of those who are best quali- 
fied to speak both in the medical and scientific world. 
If the art of healing the sick is to make further prog- 



I40 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

ress, it will be found that it will not be through any- 
material means, but through constantly getting farther 
and farther away from the physical and nearer to the 
spiritual side of life, and the medical profession can 
hope to retain its position only by using the most ad- 
vanced methods of the time, and in the future it will 
command success only through taking this course. 

Music can be made to call out from the soul of 
man latent powers and possibilities so that both mind 
and body will be made to respond. All healing which 
in any way seeks to remove disease of either mind 
or body must follow along this line, otherwise the at- 
tempt at healing will give no beneficial or lasting re- 
sults. If music "hath charms to soothe the savage 
breast" surely that which offers peace for the mind 
must bring with it rest for the body as well. It 
is a natural instinct which causes the mother to soothe 
her child with song when it is sleepless or restless. 
Just think for an instant what the word "lullaby" 
implies. Yes, the lullaby brings repose to the mind 
and sweet sleep to the body. 

Health and strength are natural conditions, but we 
have departed from natural ways of living. Natural 
causes give natural results; but no one may hope to 
express either health of mind or body through any 
unnatural departure from the ways or laws of life. 
Within recent years there has come the cry "back to 
nature." But the going back to nature should not 
mean any reversal to the past, but, rather, a new ad- 
justment to nature in the light of the present. Nature 
has still higher and loftier methods and man requires 
new adjustments to them. It will be a return to na- 
ture, but it will be no backward step, but rather a new 
and better step taken in the higher pathway of life. 



KEYNOTE TO HEALTH— HARMONY 141 

The old ways and means are no longer sufficient to 
supply the needs of the present time. They must be 
superseded by new and better ways of doing things. 
They have served their purpose and are to be left be- 
hind, so that we may press forward with confidence 
to those things which lie before. Men and women 
must stop filling their physical systems with all kinds 
of poisonous drugs in order to overcome their physical 
diseases, and resort to nature's way of cure through 
the use of rhythm, melody, and harmony. For after 
all is said, the real force of being does not consist in 
any or all material things. The ethereal remedy must 
replace the material. The divine in man must over- 
come the human. The outer life must become a full 
expression of the Inner life. Only when this comes 
to pass shall every mental malady and every physical 
disease be overcome. Man has power within himself 
to bring order out of chaos, to overcome weakness 
with strength, to make his mind holy and his body 
whole; but he can only succeed in doing this as he 
complies with all the requirements of the inner laws 
of being. And the perfect expression of all law is 
summed up in the spirit of love, and its fulfilment is 
a life that is filled with the melody and harmony of 
the music that lives within his own soul. 



CHAPTER XI 

FROM OUT THE PAST 

"Over the keys the musing organist, 
Beginning doubtfully and far away, 
First lets his fingers wander as they list. 
And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay: 
Then, as the touch of his loved instrument 
Gives hope and fervour, nearer draws his theme, 
First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent 
Along the wavering vista of his dream." — Lowell. 

"I have sent books and music there, and all 
Those instruments with which high spirits call 
The future from its cradle, and the past 
Out of its grave, and make the present last 
In thoughts and joys which sleep, but cannot die, 
Folded within their own eternity." — Shelley. 

"The soul of music slumbers in the shell, 
Till waked and kindled by the master's spell, 
And feeling hearts — touch them but lightly — pour 
A thousand melodies unheard before." — Rogers. 

Elsewhere I have stated that mental poise and 
physical health are experienced through harmonious, 
rhythmic vibration, such vibration being the result of 
harmonious thought and feeling. The right adjust- 
ment of the mind to one's inner or spiritual feelings 
will, in turn, bring about a harmonious adjustment to 
one's environment; moreover, with such a state of 
heart and mind, true rhythmic vibration will be es- 
tablished, and music could be made one means of 
forming and keeping this the normal state, and not 
a passing or a transitory condition. Right habits 
might be so firmly established that it would be easier 

142 



FROM OUT THE PAST 143 

for one to continue in such a condition than to break 
away from it. Remember, I do not make music the 
cure, but the means to an end. The curative power 
is undoubtedly latent or potential in man^s spiritual 
consciousness, and music may be made the means of 
awakening this consciousness. I would not have any- 
one suppose for a minute that this curative power in 
the life of man is only to be found in the higher spirit- 
ual consciousness. On every plane of man's develop- 
ment, from the lowest elemental plane to the highest 
spiritual one (about which we know little at the pres- 
ent time) there is a degree of this higher conscious- 
ness quite sufficient for the needs of the particular 
plane to which a man may have unfolded, and music 
may be used to call out this , higher consciousness. 
Each plane of development would have its correspond- 
ing plane or degree of music. On every plane of be- 
ing in the development of the life of man there is a 
lawful, orderly sequence from the initial movement 
to the ultimate development of the plane. Law and 
order enter as fully into the life of man as they do 
into anything else in the universe. Power is not given 
to one and withheld from another, but it is given to 
all men according to their needs and requirements. 
The needs of one living on the purely elemental or 
physical plane of being are only in a limited way the 
same as those of one living on a higher plane. It 
will be found that they are not the same in degree 
because the physical or elemental plane is limited to 
the needs and requirements of that particular plane. 
With the greater development comes the greater need. 
Each plane has its own particular needs and when man 
rises from a lower plane to a higher one, he becomes 
dead, as it were, to the lower, and alive to the higher, 



144 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

so it would not be possible for him to continue to sup- 
ply his needs solely through the use of former things. 
It should be fully recognised then that what is good 
on one plane in human development, not only is no 
longer necessary, but might really prove harmful if 
continued on a higher plane. Furthermore let it be 
known that there is everything in the way of supply 
necessary for anyone's needs on any one or all planes 
of life ; therefore music can be said to be an agent for 
the restoration of health on any plane. 

Music is equally effectual on all planes, only it 
would require good judgment and wise discrimination 
in selecting the kind of music to meet all the needs 
of those to whom it might be given. All the way 
from the sense to the spiritual plane, we may have 
music varying in degree but not necessarily in kind, 
which appeals to the best in man's nature. The 
simple music in the undeveloped life has its deter- 
mining influence in the building of character just as 
much as the music of a higher order upon the more 
developed life. A man who listens to music which 
awakens only superficial emotions is sowing the seed 
of something which in the future time will not only 
have to be overcome, but will be the cause of misery 
to him until it is overcome. Why should one con- 
sciously store up in the subconscious mind certain 
kinds of possessions which in the end will only be 
destructive, bringing in their train not only sorrow 
but disease? We should make the subconscious mind 
the storehouse for all the real riches of life, so that 
at will we may be able to draw upon them. Else- 
where, I have said that the subconscious mind is the 
repository of all that we have ever felt, thought, or 
done, and daily we are living over again what we have 



FROM OUT THE PAST 145 

already lived. There Is a law of association of ideas 
by which when anyone consciously thinks anything, 
such conscious thinking acts instantly to call up 
things from the subconscious that are similar or in 
some way related to the thing thought. If it should 
prove that the person was thinking of something that 
brightened or uplifted his mind, then such a thought 
would be reenforced or strengthened by kindred 
thoughts arising from the subconscious. But if the 
conscious thoughts were of a morbid or gloomy na- 
ture, the subconscious would add to them still other 
morbid or gloomy thoughts. The subconscious mind 
is our book of life, and we are constantly going back 
and reading its pages or chapters. If we could realise 
the truth of what we are doing, we would pay 
far greater attention to writing into this book the 
things that we would enjoy reading over again; we 
should try to avoid writing into it things of an un- 
wholesome or of a disagreeable nature. We cannot 
get away from the fact that all our conscious action 
is simply the beginning of something which later must 
be lived and relived, whether we wish it or not. Per- 
haps we all have had the experience of listening to a 
certain piece of music under very happy or delightful 
conditions, and, whenever we have heard the same 
music again, we have been able to recall and experi- 
ence something of the happiness that we had when we 
first heard it. Or again under sorrowful or depress- 
ing circumstances we may have heard music that, 
whenever we hear it ever after, calls up from the 
subconscious the sorrow and depression of the past. 
Subconsciousness may even go back into a remote 
past that one may have lived In another life. It is 
my firm belief that our subconscious minds contain 



146 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

all the melody and rhythm of all the music of the 
past, so that whenever music is made to appeal to any 
phase of life that existed in the past, there is re- 
called by it some of those distant events that one has 
already lived. 

Here are a number of illustrations to show how 
children, as well as adults, respond both in mind and 
body to music, and how music calls out much that 
may have been impressed upon their minds in a 
remote past. I remember on one occasion, when a 
number of people were gathered together to listen 
'to someone playing on a violin, that a little child 
about two years old was present, who had never seen 
anyone dance and had never before heard the violin 
played. When the violinist had played a minute or 
two, the child began to dance and exhibited a wonder- 
ful degree of rhythm in the dancing, keeping splendid 
time with the music, and her whole countenance was 
transfigured with happiness. I am fully convinced 
that the music of the violin awakened long forgotten 
memories in the mind of the child, and that the pleas- 
ure, the dance, and the rhythm were all expressions of 
something that had been felt and lived before. 

Again I remember being at an opera one night 
where a little child, apparently not more than eighteen 
months old, or at the most two years, kept time with 
both her hands all through the opera. On several oc- 
casions the father and the mother tried to keep her 
still, but she persisted in beating time, which she did 
with a correctness that could not have been excelled 
by many people who had studied music for years. 

Some time ago, a former professor of the Royal 
Academy of Music in London, related to me the fol- 
lowing story, having personal knowledge of and 



FROM OUT THE PAST 147 

vouching for the truth of It: A child between six 
and seven years old who had lived in the country 
and had never seen or heard a piano, was taken by her 
mother to visit some friends. Shortly after she ar- 
rived, there were quite a number of people in the 
drawing-room, and one of them went to the piano and 
played a piece of music on it. When it was finished, 
the child said: "Mother, I can do that," and some 
other member of the party hearing her say it, told 
her mother to let her try. She went to the piano, and, 
standing before it, used the fingers of both hands and 
played the piece with very few mistakes. I do not be- 
lieve that we ever do anything without first having 
worked for it, and I cannot believe but that the child 
must have had previous instruction before being able 
to do what she did; but that instruction had not been 
received during the few years she had lived in this life. 

The following story I can personally vouch for, as 
I have known the lady who told it to me for years, 
and have absolute faith in her reliability. She says: 

"A few years ago, when I was staying in Paris, 
some Russians who were in the same hotel met some 
Russian students at the Sorbonne. One day they 
came to the house and all the young people assembled 
in a large room in order to have a pleasant time to- 
gether. In the course of the afternoon, a young Rus- 
sian danced an intricate Caucasian dance. It repre- 
sented the life story of a young peasant girl, and be- 
gan quite slowly, the steps getting faster and faster 
until the girl drops dead in the midst of a frenzy 
of feeling and despair. At the end of It, I felt Im- 
pelled to get up, and I repeated the whole dance right 
through with one of the Russians playing the music. 
It caused a great deal of astonishment and met with 



148 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

much applause. During the whole performance I was 
lost in the enjoyment of the dance, and it was only 
afterward that I realised what had happened. This 
was the more remarkable as I am of a very reserved 
disposition, and had never done anything spontane- 
ously before a number of strangers till that time. 
Again, not being an expert dancer, everyone wanted 
to know how I remembered the steps, but they just 
came of their own accord. It is a significant fact that 
twice during the following days I was asked to repeat 
the dance and could not do so, as there were so few 
steps that I could remember." 

This is the story as given me, word for word, by 
the lady. There is one thing, however, that she failed 
to relate, and that is, that some of her ancestors were 
Russians, and, while she herself was born in Eng- 
land, of an English father, through the mother's side 
of the family she gets the Russian, and in her build 
and features she is apparently much more Russian 
than English. If the theory of reincarnation is true, 
it is more than possible that all these cases can be 
explained on the assumption that the different actors 
in these incidents had previously lived and done the 
same things before, and it only required the music to 
bring that consciousness back again into vital, living 
existence. 

I believe that man's subconsciousness contains all 
the good and all the evil of countless ages, and music 
may be made to call into consciousness all that is high- 
est and best in his nature, as well as all that is unreal 
and debasing. Music may be made to strike every 
chord in man's elemental passion; there is no depth 
it cannot sound, as there is no height it cannot be made 
to reach. It may be made to inspire love of country 



FROM OUT THE PAST 149 

or love of family; it may call out that something which 
is resident in all, the love of nature or the love of 
mankind, or the love which a man bears for a woman-, 
or a woman for a man. It is well for us to remember 
that the tares and the wheat grow side by side in the 
subconsciousness. We have all sown the seed of both, 
and we all continue to reap the harvest of both. The 
seed-sowing is a continuous process, the reaping is 
just as continuous. All unconscious of the effect he 
is producing, man has gone on sowing and reaping, 
and all that he has ever felt or thought or done is 
written in his great book of life, the subconscious 
mind. Supposing that he has written into it unwit- 
tingly all the miseries and all the pleasures of earth, 
now that he is conscious of what he is doing, why 
should he not begin to write into it in a conscious 
way, all the joys and all the harmonies that come 
from true knowledge and righteous living? When 
the realisation has come to him that he is one with 
all the life and all the Power of God's universe, that 
he is a part of the whole, that all nature is filled with 
melody produced in a rhythmic way, and that he in 
soul and mind and body is not only one with all 
nature but with Universal Life, with the very Soul 
of Music itself, then he will begin to sing his new 
song of life, because he will have awakened to a 
knowledge of music as it is — music that will be an 
ever-expanding power for good in his life, the music 
that comes from the heart, the music which appeals 
to the mind, and gives health and strength to the body. 
That being the case, how necessary it becomes to use 
the subconscious mind as a repository for that which 
is going to bring forth good fruits ! One should culti- 
vate the love of music that is of the highest and best 



ISO THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

order. In doing this all the noblest emotions will be 
aroused in the subconscious mind and will work with 
the conscious mind to bring, as it were, new riches 
into life. Very few people stop to think that in fol- 
lowing any mistaken course they are only storing up 
for themselves added troubles, because trouble is 
cumulative, it is something that goes on growing, so 
that the little thing eventually becomes a greater thing. 
Thus we may add to all kinds of disturbances, while, 
if we had been able to see things aright from the be- 
ginning, we might have saved ourselves much mental 
worry or sorrow, and perhaps have avoided physical 
pain and disease. Let me say here that every unreal 
thought or emotion that we allow to enter the con- 
sciousness of the present will return to produce a 
continued action upon both mind and body. It should 
be understood that all music that appeals solely to 
man's superficial emotions and elemental passions pro- 
duces a heated imagination which acts upon his phy- 
sical organism to greatly increase its vibration, so that 
the natural functions of one's body are greatly inter- 
fered with, and the excessive actions thus set up will 
produce all kinds of reactionary effects. Why should 
anyone destroy his peace of mind or interfere with 
his own physical well-being? That is exactly what 
people are doing when they listen to vicious, unreal, 
emotional music. We know, then, that music may be 
made to call out not only that which lives in man's 
subconsciousness from a near or distant past, but that 
it may be made the means of going deeper than all 
subconsciousness and calling out that heavenly melody 
and rhythm that lives in the soul of man as an in- 
heritance from God. 

All music, whether it be vocal or instrumental, that 



FROM OUT THE PAST 151 

comes to us from without is only a means to an end. 
In the first place, it may serve to awaken music that 
has been dormant in the subconscious mind and, in 
so far as it has been joyous, uplifting or beautiful, it 
will be of present benefit. It may also be made to 
appeal to man's higher nature, causing an awakening 
of a spiritual consciousness, and with such an awak- 
ening will come a fuller and a deeper appreciation of 
music. So no one should ever allow himself to be 
content with anything that is mediocre in music; for 
in doing so, he will never be able to reach the highest 
goal of his desires. He should seek in every way pos- 
sible for that which is highest and best, whether it be 
in music or anything else, and he will find that he will 
get far greater satisfaction through taking such a 
course than he could possibly do in any lesser way. 

We can make the subconscious mind a repository 
for the many thoughts that we shall like to recall to 
cheer and uplift us when in need. If the living of 
life is all written into the subconscious, why not learn 
to write it in the most beautiful way? Why should 
its pages be blotted by discordant, angry, or disagree- 
able thinking? Why not record everything in terms 
of beauty? No one writes our book of life for us; 
we write it for ourselves, and we put into it that 
which in a future time we have to read over and over 
again. Why not write into it our fondest hopes and 
desires, our most beautiful thoughts and feelings? 
Why not fill it with the music of true living? We 
can do it if we will. If we fill the subconscious mind 
with a longing desire for the things we wish to be and 
the thmgs we wish to do, then such thoughts and feel- 
ings will come up over and over again into the con- 
scious mind to inspire us to renewed action, until all 



152 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

we have hoped for and desired becomes fully realised^ 
And with such realisation there will come still grander 
hopes and desires, and because of what we have been 
able to do, we shall be able to accomplish still greater 
and more wonderful things. 

How much better it is to work in harmony with 
the divine law and order of life than to put ourselves 
in opposition to it. And not only better, but more 
delightful, giving more peace of mind and greater 
happiness. When we think that all this can be ac- 
complished through our own efforts, and that it brings 
untold good, it should inspire us to a daily and hourly 
effort to live life in the one and only way that makes 
life worth living. 

"Blank misgivings of a creature 
Moving about in worlds not realised, 
High instincts, before which our mortal nature 
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised: 

But for those first affections, 

Those shadowy recollections, 
Which, be they what they may. 
Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, 
Are yet a master-light of all our seeing; 

Uphold us — cherish — and have power to make 
Our noisy years seem moments in the being 
Of the eternal silence: truths that wake, 

To perish never; 
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, 

Nor man nor boy, 
Nor all that is at enmity with joy, 
Can utterly abolish or destroy ! 

Hence, in a season of calm weather 
Though inland far we be, 
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea." 

We brought no material riches into this world and 
we shall take no worldly possessions out of it; but we 
(lid bring with us, at birth, the whole history of the 



FROM OUT THE PAST 153 

past. The body recapitulated the many stages and 
conditions that in by-gone ages were being wrought 
out in form after form, until at last, the body became 
a fit habitation for the living soul; and the mind, be- 
ginning in early childhood, recapitulates all that man 
has lived, and been, and done from elemental sav- 
agery up to our present stage of human civilisation, 
and at the present moment life is being lived in order 
ito still further enrich the mind. Each experience 
through which we pass brings some new knowledge to 
bear upon how life is to be lived. If we use this knowl- 
edge in a wise way, we are storing up, we are garnering 
the only riches — those that we can take with us when 
we leave this world. The truer and the stronger our 
thoughts are, the more we shall have of the needed 
riches to bring about new adjustments to life, no mat- 
ter on what plane of being we may be. We can make, 
through the conscious action of the mind, our book 
of life a real guide-book that will help to show us 
always the best way to take. We are in the world for 
the purpose of expanding to the real love and wisdom 
of life, and through such development to fit ourselves 
for new and higher planes of life and being. 



CHAPTER XII 

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; 
The soul that rises with us, our life's star 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And Cometh from afar; 
Not in entire forgetfulness. 
And not in utter nakedness, 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God who is our home." — Wordsworth. 

"Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies, 
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." — Tennyson. 

Life is a state of consciousness. The visible world 
is a mirror of what man has felt and thought and 
done; but it is not a prophecy of what he shall be, 
for what he shall be is written into the soul of man, 
and only as man learns to express what he knows of 
his own soul-life can he enrich the world in which 
he lives and prepare himself to receive new mysteries 
from the kingdom of God that lives within him. 
Without consciousness there would be no meaning to 
human existence. Man's objective consciousness con- 
sists largely of material things, and his thoughts and 
emotions in relation to them. Consciousness consists, 
then, of what a man feels and what he thinks, and 
from such feeling and thinking there comes the out- 

154 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 155 

ward expression of himself in what he does ; for man^s 
work is a natural expression of both thought and feel- 
ing. At times he seems dominated by thought, and 
again by feeling. In his happiest states he uses both. 
The force of a man's life is in what he feels. The 
form which his work takes comes largely through 
what he thinks. His best work is accomplished when 
head and heart work together in unison. This holds 
good regarding all planes of consciousness, and this 
union makes not only for man's highest good, but 
also for the truest expression of his work. Now, 
when man uses love and wisdom in all that he does, 
the outer form will become as perfect as the inner 
ideal. All the beauty and the colour of life comes 
from within, but it is intended to exist as beauty and 
colour in man's outer world. Man brings to nature 
all that he sees in it. The kingdom of God lives in 
the life of man first as power, then as ideals to be 
externalised, and to become the symbols of beauty 
and power on earth. 

If man lived solely in his objective consciousness, 
his world would always remain the same, there would 
be no advancement of any kind, he could bring no 
new thing into being. The life of a thousand years 
ago would be the same as it is to-day, and the life of 
a thousand years hence would differ little, if any, 
from what it does at the present, were it not for the 
fact that man has a greater consciousness than that 
which we call the objective. There is an inner con- 
sciousness that has to do with what a man feels and 
thinks, and, later, these thoughts and feelings become 
transmuted into ideals. All these ideals, when lived 
and expressed, go to make a new world for man to. 
live in; thus his world becomes a true expression of 



156 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

his inner feeling and his best thought, and in this way 
it is constantly being quickened and renewed. 

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my Soul, 

As the swift seasons roll! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from Heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 

There are many stages or degrees of consciousness; 
at first, we might say, the consciousness is of the earth 
earthy, and we have comparatively little of either love 
or wisdom in evidence. It is much as in the spring- 
time when the buds begin to swell, and the green 
things come up out of the earth; for, while in every 
direction there are indications of an all-pervading life, 
yet there is an indefiniteness about it all, an indefina- 
ble something that leaves you without any sense of 
permanence. One change follows another in quick 
succession. What you saw yesterday you see perhaps 
in a larger way to-day, or possibly you see something 
that you failed to see before. It is the spring-time 
of nature, but each day brings with it something that 
is new. There is a beauty of form which is con- 
stantly changing. What the ultimate form of beauty 
is going to be one cannot see save with a prophetic 
eye ; but we know that with the summer and with the 
autumn there will come the wholeness, and the com- 
pleteness, and the beauty of the matured form which 
is revealed only in the fulness of time. The seasons 
of the year typify seasons in the life of man. There 
is a spring-time of consciousness that is just as chang- 
ing and indefinable as that portrayed by nature. As 
in nature, there is evidence on every side of exhila- 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 157 

rating vibrant life, but only the prophet can foresee 
what the fruits of this life are going to be. For life 
at this stage is filled with change, and nothing seems 
to be permanent. Things come and things go. The 
good of yesterday seemingly becomes the evil of to- 
day ; that which at one moment is deemed to be whole 
and complete, at the next is seen to be partial and in- 
complete. Man's consciousness, at this stage, is purely 
of an objective nature. All he needs is to be sur- 
rounded with things that are pleasing to the eye, or 
things that are good for food. His senses seem to 
him to be the only means through which all knowl- 
edge comes. His mind is lost in the objective. Every- 
thing that he deems to be necessary, whether it be his 
mind's happiness or his physical health, he seeks for 
in the external world. His mind is absorbed in the de- 
sire to possess material things, and as fast as he enters 
into their possession, they bring to him increased wor- 
ries and anxieties, and through his possession of them 
they seem to lose their value. In his desire for happi- 
ness, he believes it can only be attained through other 
and greater possessions until, at last, having realised 
the vanity of mere material things there comes the 
dawning of a new consciousness wherein intelligence 
supersedes sense, and reason replaces blind instinct; 
and the second stage in the evolution of consciousness 
is reached. We might say of it that it is the tree of 
life beginning to blossom, for the blossom must al- 
ways precede the fruit. As this new consciousness de- 
velops, man exalts it to the very heavens. The power 
to think, to reason, to form judgments In mind, to 
make laws for the regulation of life, all this he looks 
upon not only as the highest power and possibility of 
his life, but as the ultimate end and object of life. 



158 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Mental development becomes the supreme end of his 
being, and everything is made subordinate to it. But 
this state of consciousness, no matter how great it 
may be made, is only one of the milestones on the 
way of life. Thoroughly good in so far as it goes, 
it still is only the blossom, not the fruit. And there 
is that within which, all unconsciously, is making for 
a new and a larger life. 

Into human life there is written the ideal or the plan 
that sooner or later must become fully expressed, two 
conditions, however, are necessary to the working out 
of this plan: the pressure of the ideal from inner to 
outer and the pressure of environment from outer to 
inner. Between these two, all growth takes place. 
Man is constantly having to meet and battle with, not 
only the obstacles in his external world, but the fears 
and anxieties of his own mind as well as the press- 
ure brought to bear upon him from the minds of 
others. At one stage in his life, he is very much 
like the seed in the earth, that has begun to expand 
and is sending its little blade upward. It has to push 
on up through the earth, forcing its way, as it were, 
toward the warmth and the light and the glow of 
life. The pressure of earth and wind and the other 
elements are all necessary factors in the growth of 
the plant or the tree. So all pressure of environment 
and all the mental disturbances exist in order to be 
met by man and to be overcome by him, and it is 
through this meeting and overcoming that he grows 
into the larger and stronger life. It is all a prepara- 
tion making for a new consciousness of life. So the 
warfare goes on between the mental and the physical. 
With it, there enters a state of unrest, of dissatisfac- 
tion, an indefinable longing for something man can 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 159 

feel but can scarcely put into words. There is a new 
day dawning, and with its coming there is developed 
that new feeling for which we use different words to 
express different degrees: love, faith, hope, joy, and 
the numerous kindred feelings that come with these. 
With their coming there has entered into the life a 
sense of the permanent, something that has never been 
realised in the consciousness of the past. In this new 
development man is leaving the old and incomplete 
consciousness behind. His world, which was at first 
only an outer one composed of a multiplicity of forms, 
and which later became a world of thought and ideas, 
has become enlarged to a world of feeling which 
seems to be without beginning or ending. In this 
new life, love and wisdom become united, and it is 
only when man uses love and wisdom in all that he 
does that he really enters into the life that was de- 
signed for him from the beginning. It is only as man 
uses love and wisdom that his own body and all the 
outer forms that he brings into existence will become 
as perfect as his soul and mind. For love and wisdom 
are the first-fruits of the tree of life. 

Man only enters into the strait and narrow way 
when love and wisdom have become at-one in his life. 
With the development of love, he comes into closer 
relationship with his fellow-man than he ever could 
have done through the use of sense and mind alone. 
He understands and is understood in a way that he 
has never known before. The new consciousness of 
life becomes an ever-expanding one; by it man comes 
at last into conscious relation with that Universal 
Consciousness of which, heretofore, he has had no 
conception. In the past, his knowledge, his health, 
his happiness were all dependent on the things seen; 



i6o THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

but in his new state there comes the reliance, the de- 
pendence, and the trust in that which is unseen. He 
begins to Hve, as it were, a new Hfe; he is no longer 
dominated in any way by the world or the things of 
the world. The old things have passed away and all 
things have become new. He is looking out upon the 
world and the things of the world with a knowledge 
that they are all subject to him, that all things are 
his to use. Living life in this way, his inner feelings 
give colour and tone to mind and thought, and mind 
and thought act directly upon his body to renew and 
to strengthen it. He realises, as it were, a conscious 
centre of being from which he works outward to the 
very circumference of life. The Universal Spirit lives 
within him, enlightening his soul, and the soul, in 
turn, enlightens the mind and perfects the body. Thus 
the whole life has been quickened and renewed. He 
has entered a consciousness that is no longer individ- 
ual but one that has become universal. A poet has 
said that "God lives from whole to part, but human 
soul must rise from individual to the whole." Every- 
thing begins within the little self, the personal I, and 
reaches out to the Universal Self, the I Am. From^ 
first to last it is a state of consciousness, but it is an 
ever-expanding consciousness; it is the awakening of 
the part to its true relationship to the whole. It is 
a difficult matter to make this so clear that one is able 
to appreciate it in all its fulness through or by his 
mentality, because it has to do with the things of the 
Spirit, the unseen causes of life, and the things of the 
Spirit can only be understood by the Spirit. The highly 
spiritually developed of all ages and all climes have, at 
one time or another in life, through the spoken or writ- 
ten word, tried to make plain to the world that there is 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS i6i 

an all-pervading Life — a Life that, while immanent is 
also transcendent, a Life and a Mind that is both within 
and without all things, and from which all things pro- 
ceed. We are, therefore, not dependent for existence, 
or consciousness on ourselves, but on the One who is 
in all, and through all, and above all. There is one 
Consciousness and only one. Whether we choose to 
name it Cosmic or Universal is of little moment. 

Let me define in a more complete way what is 
meant by Cosmic Consciousness. We speak of the 
individual as having soul, mind and body, and it is 
all three which constitute the one individual. All over 
the world we find millions of people with souls, minds 
and bodies, none of them differing in kind, but differ- 
ent nations and individuals differing in degree. All 
of these units possess life and intelligence, but this 
life and intelligence differs in degree, never in kind. 
Some people possess greater life and greater intelli- 
gence than do others. No matter how low down in 
the scale of human life we may go, and no matter 
how high, we find that in humanity, from the highest 
to the lowest, all are manifesting life, feeling, and in- 
telligence in differing degrees according to the stage 
of their development. Our Scriptures declare that: 
"He hath made of one blood all nations of men for 
to dwell on all the face of the earth." The esoteric 
meaning of the word blood is life. "He hath made 
of one life all nations of men for to dwell on the face 
of the earth." Paul has represented humanity as one 
great body of which each person forms a part, he 
states that we are members one of another. The wise 
men of many ages have believed in humanity, as a 
whole, forming the grand man of the heavens; and 
this grand man constitutes the sun or the universal 



i62 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Christ. So that it is one Life, one Mind, that lives 
in all. In view of this we can better understand what 
Paul meant when he said: "Let the same mind be in 
you that dwelt in Christ," or when he referred to 
Jesus as being our elder brother, or, again, when he 
referred to Him as being the "first-fruits" of the tree 
of life. In the gospel according to St. John, Jesus 
says: "The son can do nothing of Himself save what 
He seeth the Father do." Again, in His statement 
to Nicodemus He said: "Ye must be born again," 
and in the first chapter of St. John we find that "new- 
birth" designated in this way as being "not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
but of God." In view of this we can better understand 
the statement that God, "who is in all, and through all, 
and above all, worketh within you to will and to do." 
Cosmic Consciousness is therefore the one supreme 
Consciousness, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omni- 
present, in which all life is one, all power is one, all 
consciousness is one. In this consciousness man is a 
child of God; God lives in him and he lives in God. 
It is such conscious knowledge on the part of the in- 
dividual that brings the conscious at-one-ment be- 
tween God and man, between the Whole and the part. 
In this state a man has no will of his own, but has 
become one with Universal Will ; has no life or intelli- 
gence of his own, but has become one with Universal 
Life and Universal Intelligence. Cosmic Conscious- 
ness, then, is that state of development in which Son- 
ship is realised. "I in thee and Thou in me, that we 
may be made perfect in One." It is also that state 
wherein the individual realises that every good and 
every perfect gift is from God, that there is only one 
Giver and that He giveth to all bountifully. Man 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 163 

therefore draws from the Universal not only his vital 
energy, but his living ideals, and everything that is 
necessary to perfect his life. God works through 
man to this end, that His inner kingdom may be es- 
tablished on earth, that all His children may seek after 
Him and find Him, may come to Him and draw from 
Him whatever heart and mind may desire. He is the 
eternal Fount which supplies our every need. All 
that is great, all that is beautiful in life has, at one 
time, by some man or men, been drawn first into this 
life as feeling and ideal, and later takes form in the 
world as expression. Some men who have entered 
deeper into the Cosmic Consciousness than others, 
were able to draw from it, in a larger way, and 
were consequently better able to give to the world 
of their heavenly possessions. The greatest com- 
posers, poets, sculptors, painters, architects, and, in 
fact, the greatest men in every department of life 
have either received in a small or a large degree ac- 
cording to their capacity to receive, and then have 
enriched the world because of such receiving. In 
other words, they have simply been the instruments 
through which the riches of the Spirit have been 
poured, and the measure of their giving out of their 
fulness to the world was the measure of their con- 
tinued receptivity. Reciprocity of giving and receiv- 
ing is one of life's greatest laws. "Freely thou hast 
received, freely give." 

Under the influence of this new consciousness the 
shadows of life can no longer disturb us. We have the 
confidence and courage of our inmost convictions. 
The new life has not only brought us into harmony 
with ourselves, but has dispelled all the things that 
we feared in the past. We have left death and the 



1 64 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

grave behind. Sorrow and pain no longer affright us ; 
we consciously know that we are one with all Life, 
with all Intelligence, with all Power; that we are not 
only a part of the Whole, but it is the Whole that is 
working within us to will and to do. All the discords 
and all the imperfect chords have ceased, and we 
are now in full accord with all the music and harmony 
of life. This constitutes that state of consciousness 
to which a writer some years ago prefixed the word 
Cosmic. When one has fully entered into this Cosmic 
Consciousness, he has attained to that state which the 
Scriptures refer to as having passed from death unto 
life, as having consciously realised Sonship with God. 
Then to such a man that which has been secret is re- 
vealed, that which has been hidden is found. Cosmic 
Consciousness is perhaps best illustrated by such won- 
derful lives as those of Krishna, Buddha, and Jesus. 
The world has had its countless thousands of men and 
women, who, while not fully entering into it, never- 
theless have had glimpses of its fulness and were able 
to bring back from it some of its wondrous knowledge 
and beauty, were able to write that insight into music, 
and to give it form, and endow that form with the 
soul of music. And some others were able to chisel 
into the cold white marble such a warmth and a glow 
of life that the marble seemed a living thing, and into 
it they wrote a character so wonderful and so mar- 
vellous that the beholder feels as though the very soul 
of the sculptor had entered into the marble symbol of 
what a man should be — a god on earth, having do- 
minion and power over all things. Some of this con- 
sciousness has been caught by the painter, and he has 
received a message from God to man, a command, as 
it were, to convey to the world something of divinity, 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 165 

so that those looking at the painting might catch some- 
thing of its spirit, something of that illumination 
which the painter must have felt when he painted into 
his picture a part of his own soul, and made the pic- 
ture so great that one looking at it through the eyes 
of the soul can never forget it while life lasts. And, 
again, from the Cosmic Consciousness there came to 
the architect who designed the great Duomo of St. 
Peter's the inspiration necessary to build a cathedral 
that should be a true outer expression of inner beauty 
and power. And St. Peter's stands to-day as a monu- 
ment of the divinity that lived in a man who was able 
to give expression to it on earth. It is said that Bee- 
thoven kept constantly on his work-table these lines 
found by Champollion Figeac on an Egyptian temple : 
"I am that which is. I am all that is, that has been, 
and that shall be. No mortal hand has lifted my veil. 
He is by Himself and it is to Him that everything 
owes existence." 

Beethoven was, at times, a remarkable illustration 
of receptivity to Cosmic Consciousness. His ninth 
symphony is a striking example of this. Because of 
his deafness and irritability he was not always a fit in- 
strument through which Cosmic Consciousness could 
function. But whenever he was under its influence, 
he produced his most wonderful and beautiful music. 
But among all the composers, Mozart stands pre- 
eminent as being in closest relation, from childhood 
up, with this Consciousness. Listening to Mozart's 
music is like looking into a crystal pool in which the 
eye can see to its greatest depths. With the first bar 
you feel that here is the work of a master mind. 
Somehow, you get the impression that he knows the 
end with the beginning, that he has listened to the 



i66 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

music before, and writes down what he has heard. 
Among all the great makers of music, Mozart is the 
heaven-born, the one who was more constantly in 
touch with Cosmic Consciousness than any of the 
master musicians that preceded or followed him. As 
a child he was a true representative of rhythm, mel- 
ody, and harmony. He was literally an expression of 
music; but the music that lived and expressed itself 
through him made him so delicately sensitive that he 
never became attuned to the outer world in which he 
lived. The world, as yet, has no full realising sense 
of what Mozart gave to it, and the extent to which he 
inspired and influenced other composers no man can 
know. There is that directness and certainty in his 
music that no composer has been able to put into his 
work in the same degree. Beethoven wrote and re- 
wrote until he was satisfied with his work, but all 
that Mozart wrote poured out in music as a finished 
work, in the first instance, without the infinite labor 
expended by other musicians. Schubert was also a 
striking example of a born musician. With very little 
technical knowledge, he was able to write far more 
beautiful music — music filled with melody and rhythm 
— than many others who had a full command of tech- 
nique. He is simply a fountain head, as it were, 
through which rhythm and melody bubble into song. 
His music is not of the same order as that of Mozart ; 
it has not that high compelling force, but it has a 
simplicity and a beauty that few composers have been 
able to put into their music. You hear the songs of 
the birds, the running waters, the wind in the trees. 
You literally see and hear nature portrayed in a way 
that few have been able to compass. He wins the 
way to the heart. There is something so wholesome 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 167 

that it inspires one to brighter, happier living. Men- 
delssohn was also a wonderful interpreter of nature; 
though differing from Schubert in that his music has 
more of the classical, cultured setting than is to be 
found in Schubert's compositions. Both were great, 
each in his own way, and both drew the most beautiful 
music from Cosmic Consciousness. I use these few il- 
lustrations to show the relation that Cosmic Conscious- 
ness has to the composer in the production of his high- 
est music. When we speak of music as being new or 
original, that newness and originality may be largely 
the result of the composer's mentality in the form he 
has given his music, but if it is a newness that consists 
in its rhythm and melody, then it is the result of his 
being inspired from the Cosmic Consciousness. All 
music proceeds from one Source. All music is gov- 
erned by one Law. The composer who is attuned to 
the Source and is governed by the Law can draw a 
never-ending supply; for, while this Source and the 
Law are one, yet there is an infinity of diversity of 
expression in rhythm, melody, and harmony. The 
sun is one great body, but from it proceed millions of 
rays ; so it is with music. Some in going to the Foun- 
tain-head of music draw but little ; others bring away 
in greater abundance, but the spring never runs dry, 
for the supply is inexhaustible. It may be mortify- 
ing to the man who thinks he has wrought out a great 
work solely through his own mentality to be confronted 
by the fact that he has only been the instrument used 
to make manifest the work. The greatest minds know 
that of themselves they can do nothing. So the 
Founder of Christianity testified: "The words that 
I speak unto you I speak not of myself ; but the Father 
that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.'' "If I bear 



i68 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

witness of myself, my witness is not true. I can of 
mine own self do nothing. . . . The son can do 
nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do." 
And this is the testimony of all who are spiritually 
illuminated. It is something greater than the personal 
self that works in them to will and to do. It is at 
times when the mind is relaxed and at peace that the 
illumination will come, or when a man is so absorbed 
in his work that he forgets the personal self and all 
his surroundings. It is something new and wonder- 
ful that brings some new light or discloses some new 
truth. We may think of such a man as being, what 
we call, visionary; but if it were not for the visions, 
we all would become of the earth earthy. 

"Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb. 
Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him? 

Dark is the world to thee; thyself art the reason why, 
For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel *I am I?' 

Is not the vision He, tho' He be not that which He seems? 
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in 
dreams? 

Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit 

can meet — 
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and 

feet." 

It is through the speaking, through the reaching out 
and coming in touch with it that the vision comes, and 
with it the inner light which is to enlighten the world. 
We are parts of Him and the part may consciously 
come to know the whole and consciously be at one 
with it, and have its every need supplied. There is an 
ever-ascending scale of being, for the ending of one 
stage of development is only the beginning of another. 
As man consciously feels after God, there comes the 



COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS 169 

realisation of sonship and that in Him is our strength 
and our health, and that from Him comes every good 
and every perfect gift. 

"Pleased rather with some soft ideal scene 
The work of Fancy, or some happy tone 
Of meditation, slipping in between 
The beauty coming and the beauty gone. 

" — If thought and love desert us, from that day 
Let us break off all commerce with the Muse : 
With Thought and Love companions of our way — 

"Whate'er the senses take or may refuse, — 
The Mind's eternal heaven shall shed her dews 
Of inspiration on the humblest lay." 

Cosmic Consciousness may not as yet be recognised 
by the mentaHty of the world at large, because it takes 
the spirit in man to discern the things of the Spirit, 
and until the life unfolds to the inner vision and the 
inner hearing man is blind and deaf to the things of 
the Spirit. Only he that hath eyes shall see, only he 
that hath ears shall hear. 



CHAPTER XIII 

PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 

"Thoughts of my soul, how swift ye go ! 
Swift as the eagle's glance of fire, 
Or arrows from the archer's bow. 
To the far aim of your desire! 
Thought after thought, ye thronging rise. 
Like spring-doves from the startled wood. 
Bearing like them your sacrifice 
Of music unto God!" — Whittieil 

"What passion cannot Music raise and quell? 
When Jubal struck the chorded shell. 
His listening brethren stood around, 
And, wondering, on their faces fell 
To worship that celestial sound: 

Less than a God they thought there could not dwell 
Within the hollow of that shell 
That spoke so sweetly and so well. 
What passion cannot Music raise and quell?" — Dryden. 

As music is representative of both thought and feel- 
ing, it must not only be varied in form, but the best 
thoughts that the mind can give and the deepest things 
the soul can feel must enter into its composition. 
Man's work tells the story of his inner life. If it is 
the work of a Michael Angelo, a Leonardo da Vinci, 
a Beethoven, or a Wagner, then such work must be a 
true expression of his highest self. There is no way 
for a man to attain lasting greatness save through 
the development of his own innate powers and possi- 
bilities. All greatness comes from within, but in order 
to benefit the man or the world, it must take form in 
the world and the tree must become known by its 
fruit. It is expected of all that each shall live his own 
life, and live it to the full on every plane of being, 

170 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 171 

from the elemental plane even to the Christ plane, so 
that each man will, eventually, contain within himself 
the full record of all life, because he has lived to the 
full on every plane of being. 

Rhythm and melody are both true expressions of 
man's inner life, but they must become fully expressed 
in his outer life so that there may be the perfect cor- 
respondence between inner and outer. The greatest 
composers will ever resort to the inner, but they will 
seldom if ever be unmindful of the outer form. The 
vision is first, the form is last, and the composer who 
tries to reverse this order will never be able to pro- 
duce great or soul-satisfying music, 

Mozart and Beethoven both employed a great va- 
riety of rhythm because they were true interpreters 
of what might be called the higher or celestial music. 
But no composer however great has ever been able to 
reach the limit of musical rhythm, because the rhythm 
of music comes to us from infinity itself. It must, 
therefore, have an infinity of variety. Mozart and Bee- 
thoven were among the greatest masters of rhythm, 
and both introduced into their music much that was 
new in the way of rhythm. It is doubtful whether 
any poet ever lived who exceeded Tennyson in variety 
and beauty of rhythm, and yet the rhythm used by 
either Mozart or Beethoven far outdistanced in num- 
ber and variety that of Tennyson. Poetry, while more 
nearly related to music than any other of the arts, 
is nevertheless greatly restricted in its expression, be- 
cause the poet, in his effort to give expression, draws 
more from the external side of life, consequently the 
mind is used more than the soul. There can be beau- 
tiful, descriptive poetry, such as is to be found in 
the poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, Thomas 



172 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Moore, or Lord Byron, where mentality alone is used 
almost entirely; we might call them word painters of 
nature. But music is in no way dependent upon the 
spoken word. Too often do the words associated with 
music serve only to detract from its value. There is 
no doubt in the mind of the writer that the librettos 
for Mozart's operas and the verses used for other of 
his music, too often kept him from doing his best 
work. A composer cannot become very much in- 
spired by the work of another which in every way 
falls so far short of his own, and it is to be observed 
that wherever the verse was of a high order, Mozart 
was always at his best. He certainly laboured under 
the disadvantage of having no composer of verse who 
could, to any degree, live up to his music. Wagner 
had at least the stimulus of his own poetic work to 
aid him in his musical composition. 

Rhythm enters into the life of everything, and 
there is just as much variety of rhythm as there is 
variety of sound, color, or form. He who is in 
closest relation to all that is greatest in life will give 
a far truer and better expression than the one who 
looks at life in a superficial way. Let the composer 
realise that music is the language of the heart, and 
that this language should not be abused by prosti- 
tuting it to ignoble ends or purposes, when he has the 
power through the language of music to talk to others 
of the very highest and most wonderful things in life. 
He can really become one of God's prophets to give 
to the world something that shall not perish, or he may 
use his God-given gift to call out only that which is 
vicious and purely emotional in the life of man. We 
can have infinite variety in music without taking away 
any of its true qualities. 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 173 

If the music of every composer were a true expres- 
sion of the indwelling Spirit, then we should have 
less poor music than we have at the present time, and 
we should have far more originality, because, if each 
composer, instead of trying to copy after someone 
else whom, perhaps, he thinks a greater master than 
himself, should go directly to the Fountain-head, he 
would get something new, something original, that 
would be better than anything he could possibly copy 
from another. The composer who is only an echo of 
someone else, is of practically little use to himself or 
anyone else. If one can do but a little and does that 
little in a true way, both the individual and the world 
at large profit much more than if there is only a copy 
or a poor expression of what someone else has already 
done, in a better way. The world needs to-day more 
of original temperament, more of original thought, 
and more of original expression. There is a demand 
for it in every department of the world's work. No 
man should ever allow himself to become a mere re- 
corder of what other people have thought and done, 
he should be a living man, true to the highest expres- 
sion of what the Creator intended him to be — strong, 
persevering, courageous, self-reliant, feeling, thinking 
and acting for himself. A man is able to express in 
an original way only that which he has thought and 
felt for himself, and so life can only become great to 
those who are able to discern the greatness that lives 
within their own lives. 

Said Wagner: "The power of the composer is 
naught else than that of the magician. It is really in 
a state of enchantment that we listen to one of Bee- 
thoven's symphonies.'* "Till now we are gazing in 
broad daylight on a painted and transparent image; 



174 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

and here is Bullindon in the silence of the night, be- 
tween the world of appearances and the internal be- 
ing of nature; and it is from the essence of things 
that he draws that light which gives its transparence 
to the image. Thus, by a kind of miracle, the image 
becomes a living one; before us stands out a second 
world, of which the greatest masterpieces of a Raphael 
could not give us any idea." 

Composers should remember that their music, in all 
probability, is going to affect human life to a greater 
degree than either the written or the spoken word; 
therefore, it is necessary that they should write from 
the heart, and put their minds into their writing in 
such a way as to give it the greatest beauty of form. 
The composer who is bringing something new into his 
work is adding that which will give to music still 
greater value, even if the expression is only of some 
partial phase of life. It is not every composer who 
can be a Beethoven or a Wagner. But there are many 
who are able to add valuable contributions to life, 
and by so doing greatly enrich the musical world. 

I am convinced that in practically every human be- 
ing there is a latent force that, to a marked degree, 
is unknown, and consequently unused, but which, if 
called into a state of conscious activity would enable 
one to accomplish four or five times more work of 
either a mental or a physical nature than is commonly 
done at the present. I believe music can be used as 
a means for the liberation of this energy, and not only 
this, but that it may be used as a means of enabling 
one to do one's work in a natural, rhythmic way, so 
that the same amount of energy used will give far 
greater results than can be obtained by our ordinary 
methods. There are many tense and abnormal ways 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 175 

of doing things which give comparative little result, 
yet use up a great deal of energy, and, if we could 
introduce natural methods into all our work, mental 
and physical, we should find that the same work could 
be done with far greater ease and with less expendi- 
ture of energy. 

From first to last there is a unity of law in music, 
but an infinite diversity of expression. No two com- 
posers are alike, and if they make their compositions 
a true expression of their inner thoughts and feelings, 
each will give a new expression of the law, or each 
will produce original music, something that is not 
merely a copy of someone else. The production of 
new music can never cease. As long as the soul feels 
and the mind thinks, music will continue to give ex- 
pression to thought and feeling, bringing to life an 
ever unfailing supply. 

Probably in the last two hundred years greater 
things have been accomplished by composers than have 
ever been done in the world's history, and the fields 
opened have shown still greater possibilities for musi- 
cal achievement. And because the highest music is an 
expression of one's soul, or, I might say, an expres- 
sion of the Universal Soul, it comes nearer to the 
heart of the Infinite than perhaps anything else in life. 
Music can, therefore, never have real beginning or 
ending. 

"And here is truth, but an it please thee not, 
Take thou the truth as thou has told it me. 
For truly, as thou sayest, a fairy king 
And fairy queens have built the city, son; 
They came from out a sacred mountain cleft 
Toward the sunrise, each with harp in hand, 
And built it to the music of their harps. 
And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son, 



176 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

For there is nothing in it as it seems 

Saving the King; tho' some there be that hold 

The King a shadow, and the city real. 

Yet take thou heed of him, for, so thou pass 

Beneath this archway, then wilt thou become 

A thrall to his enchantments, for the King 

Will bind thee by such vows as is a shame 

A man should not be bound by, yet the which 

No man can keep; but, so thou dread to swear. 

Pass not beneath this gateway, but abide 

Without, among the cattle of the field. 

For an ye heard a music, like enow 

They are building still, seeing the city is built 

To music, therefore never built at all. 

And therefore built for ever." 

There is a music of the spheres wherein worlds, 
and suns, and countless systems of worlds and suns 
in their movements sing praises to God in a beauty 
and in a glory of sound and colour not yet conceiv- 
able by the mind of man. Knowledge, as we under- 
stand it, may pass away, prophecy may cease, but 
music will exist when time shall be no more. We 
might say that music is the foundation of all the arts, 
that all the varying arts are only different expressions 
of the great law of rhythmic music. 

I have referred elsewhere to the fact that the great 
composer draws his inspirations from a Universal 
Source, but before he can do this he must, in a sense, 
have become attuned to that Source. I do not mean 
to say by this that his constant source of supply is 
consciously found in the Universal, occasionally he 
may be found depicting many things which appeal to 
him from the external side of life. Often, too, he is 
drawing his inspiration from his own subconscious 
mind, yet such music, while it may occasionally con- 
tain passion, cannot contain anything that is really 
new or vital to life. To a degree the composer puts 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 177 

himself into the music. We can note that especially 
in the form the music takes. But if his music is to 
be really great he must go beyond the limitations of 
the self. Through his own development, call it char- 
acter if you will, he is able to reach out and touch 
something in life that is greater than any mental 
knowledge of which he is conscious. I think we might 
truly say that the greatest composer is the one who 
feels after God, or who, through his feeling, con- 
sciously comes into vital relation with the source of 
all feeling. Let us remember that feeling is the very 
soul of music, while thinking only determines the 
form that music should take. The highest feeling is 
involuntary and has no limitations save the limita- 
tions that mind makes in its efforts to direct or to 
give form to the feeling. Let us also remember that 
all form is, at best, only an expression of inner feel- 
ing. The great composer must be so sensitive and 
magnetic that he will instantly respond to the touch 
of feeling, whether it be that which comes from an- 
other soul, or from the Universal Soul. Such a de- 
velopment is bound to express itself in vivid imagina- 
tion so that all the inner feeling will tend to give 
colour and beauty to his thought pictures, and such 
ideas, in turn, will become perfect forms of expres- 
sion; so that we have feeling, idea, and expression 
corresponding in turn to soul, mind and body. 

The office of the religious composer is a very much 
higher one than that of the preacher. Usually the 
preacher, through the spoken word, appeals to man, 
in a very marked degree, through his mind, but the 
composer appeals to him through his heart or soul. 
This makes it the more necessary that he should speak 
from spirit to spirit. Mankind does not yet fully ap- 



178 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

predate the service that the world's great composers 
have rendered. If there were real appreciation, we 
would build more wonderful monuments to the Mo- 
zarts, the Haydns, the Handels, the Beethovens, the 
Wagners than any we build to our greatest warriors 
or statesmen. 

There is something of far grander and of a more 
lasting value to the world's spiritual progress con- 
tributed by the great composer than anything that can 
be found possessing value in any other profession or 
walk of life. 

In many walks of life the people who have been 
great or who have done great things have received 
perhaps the full recognition due them from the world 
at large, but the composer who has influenced life 
often to a far greater degree, has received only a 
partial recognition of his worth, and that from a com- 
paratively small number of people. We take what he 
has to give and enjoy, and benefit by it, but the com- 
poser is forgotten in his work. Perhaps after all this 
may be the true way — to let the work speak for the 
man. The Master once said: 'Tf I do not the works 
of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye 
believe not me, believe the works." There is one 
thing certain, however, that the work done by any 
composer lives after him so that his message, whether 
he is in the body or out of the body, is being heard 
over and over again. Composers have often wrought 
better than they have known. Through their composi- 
tions they have brought to fuller life perseverance and 
courage, brightness and hope, joy and gladness, order 
and beauty. They have done much to inspire people 
who were in doubt and despair, much to lift people 
from the sordid and the earthly, and to give them 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 179 

glimpses of a newer consciousness wherein all the 
real melodies and harmonies of life and beauty exist, 
and although, as I said before, it is doubtful whether 
the world has as yet any real appreciation of their 
worth, somewhere and at some time, the true appre- 
ciation will come and they will reap the harvest they 
have sown. 

While music may be considered the greatest of the 
arts, it is, perhaps, less dependent on art than any 
of the others, because the other arts draw far more of 
their inspiration from man's outer world. Painting, 
for instance, is usually an effort to reproduce some- 
thing that already exists in form; the same may be 
said of sculpture; in drama, too, the actor has a part 
to act, — he does not, in a full sense, do anything that 
is original, but rather seeks to copy something which 
another has already said or done. Someone might 
retort by saying that nine-tenths of the musical com- 
positions of the present time are at best only copies 
from other composers. Granting this to be true, that 
there is little of what might be called creative music 
among a large body of composers, and that they are 
mere imitators, yet such work as theirs can never 
stand for truly representative music. The only music 
that Is representative is creative music. The great 
creators of music do not depend on an objective con- 
sciousness, or on one having to do with the world 
and the things of the world, but they ever have relied 
on what might be called the highly intuitional con- 
sciousness that deals more directly with causes than 
with effects. 

It is related of Haydn that when he was about to 
compose, he began by noting down the principal idea 
or theme, and chose the keys through which he 



i8o THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

wished it to pass. Then he imagined a little romance 
which might furnish him with musical sentiments and 
colours. It is said that the strict connection which thus 
subsisted between the poetical and musical imagina- 
tion of Haydn was of great advantage to him in his 
compositions. Through this course he was enabled to 
introduce into his melodies an air of reality. He al- 
ways led a very religious life. All his scores are in- 
scribed at the commencement with the words: "In 
nomine Domini," or "Soli Deo gloria," while at the 
conclusion of them is written "Laus Deo," but "I 
was," he says, "never so pious as when engaged upon 
the 'Creation.' I fell on my knees daily and prayed 
earnestly to God that He would grant me strength to 
carry out the work, and to praise Him worthily." It 
is said, too, that in composing, whenever he felt the 
ardour of his imagination decline, or was stopped by 
some apparently insurmountable difficulty, he rose 
from his work and resorted to prayer, an expedient 
which, he said, never failed to revive him. 

The world from which creative music comes is far 
more a world of unseen feeling than that known by 
any of the other arts. Gradually we are coming to 
understand that man is far more a product of what 
he has felt than of what he has thought — that his 
feelings impel him to greater action than do his 
thoughts. He is often made sick instantaneously 
through his superficial feelings, and again is known 
to recover rapidly when a new and a higher degree of 
feeling asserts itself. The miracles of healing that 
occur at Lourdes, or at the church of St. Anne de 
Beaupre in the province of Quebec, are not brought 
about by something that appeals to man's thought or 
reason, but rather by the intensity of religious fer- 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE i8i 

vour or feeling. The inner is made to assert its su- 
premacy over the outer. It may be suggestion in the 
first place, but it becomes something very much deeper 
before the cure is effected. Music may suggest, but 
in the end it is bound to do far more than this. Sug- 
gestion is purely a mental process. The highest music 
contains within itself heart as well as mind; it is a 
true expression of love and wisdom. It is love and 
wisdom in human life that makes for all the health, 
the power, and the beauty of a sound mind and a 
whole, strong elastic body. 

Surely music has some higher office than to amuse 
or even to give enjoyment. For if, among all the 
arts, it lies closest to the heart or the love-nature, 
surely its office must be the highest one. Without 
doubt it may be made the means of awakening the 
religious nature of man, causing that true vibration 
which begins at the very centre of life and works 
from there outward to the circumference. True re- 
ligious feeling later resolves itself into true philosophic 
thought and this, in turn, becomes true physical ac- 
tion. Only the highest form of music can be made 
to awaken man's inner life, and through such an awak- 
ening his whole life will be influenced and trans- 
formed. I doubt if many as yet fully realise the vast 
benefit to be derived from music. Ideals rule the 
world. The lover of music constantly finds his mind 
inspired by new ideals, for, in absorbing the music, 
he drinks in something more than the rhythm, melody, 
and harmony; he gets from it something of the living 
spirit that brought it into being. 

In many and various ways music can be used for 
the development of life and the rounding out of char- 
acter. It can arouse one's sympathies so that the lis- 



i82 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

tener will take a greater and a more sympathetic in- 
terest in the welfare of his fellow-man. It can have 
such a refining influence that kindness, gentleness, and 
courtesy are all true expressions of its effects upon 
life. It can inspire hope and courage, in fact, its 
strengthening and renewing influence cannot be over- 
estimated. Not only can it be made an influence for 
the healing of those who are sick in mind and body, 
but it will be used for bringing the greatest good to 
all mankind. It can comfort the sorrowing, strengthen 
the weak, and uplift the despondent. There is no field 
of human endeavour that it may not enter and bring 
with it something that will inspire to nev/ effort and 
incite to continued progress. 

When composers as a class have come to see this, 
their compositions will be directed to definite ends and 
purposes. They will know, too, that only as they can 
realise in their own consciousness the highest and tru- 
est ideals, will their music prove effective in accom- 
plishing its desired end. They will also realise that 
only as they give their very best to the world will 
their music continue to live in the minds and the 
hearts of the people. Beethoven lives in his music in 
a greater way to-day than he did while he lived in the 
body, and there is an ever-increasing appreciation of 
his work. While he may not have lived a happy life, 
yet he gave so much happiness to others through his 
music, that in doing this he was storing up real riches 
for himself. When he passed from the world he took 
these with him, for the only riches one can take into 
that other phase of life are the accumulations of heart 
and mind. The beautiful ideals he expressed through 
music, while they were given to the world at large, or 
rather to all who were ready to appreciate them, still 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 183 

remained with him to bless and to comfort his own 
life. Men do not always reap in this little life all they 
have sown. With some, the greatest part of the reap- 
ing time may come in another life. We live in a uni- 
verse of cause and effect. So sometime and some- 
where Beethoven will reap the full effects of the 
causes which he set in motion, for what we give to 
the world, be it good or be it ill, comes back to com- 
fort or to disturb us in our after life. "Whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Some of the 
composers who ranked high in their time, who com- 
posed for the passing hour merely to amuse the pub- 
lic of that day, are almost forgotten. They had their 
brief day of popularity, but, because their ideals were 
either partial or unreal, when they passed away, they 
left nothing behind them that would stand the test of 
time. For it is only the real that lives and continues 
to bless. 

In music, as in every other effort of life, it is the 
honesty, the sincerity, and the integrity that count in 
the end. And so all composers of true music, like 
all men who have living ideals, will continue to live 
in their music long after they have passed from this 
earth. The composers who desire to please, who sacri- 
fice their ideals for the popularity of the moment, may 
enjoy all kinds of worldly honours and material pos- 
sessions, but all those things they leave behind them, 
and in the end their work passes away and they are 
remembered no more; while all that is true in music 
will live, whether it be a great symphony by a Bee- 
thoven, or the light, joyous music filled with the 
sweetness and innocence of Mendelssohn's "Spring 
Song," or "Wedding March." Because life is many- 
sided there must be the joyous and the light, as well 



i84 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

as the serious and the strong ; and composers in order 
to be true to themselves must give full and true ex- 
pression of what they feel and think in every phase of 
life. Not every composer can be a Beethoven or a 
Wagner, but every composer can be true to his high- 
est self, and can express that truth just as much in 
the bright, joyous song as someone else can do in a 
more serious production. Only in this way will music 
come to take its proper place in life. 

While music may be made to portray every human 
emotion, nevertheless we know that there are unreal, 
as well as real, emotions, and that the music that deals 
with the unreal only serves to perpetuate the unreal, 
and can serve no really beneficial purpose. Some may 
say that such music is needed by way of contrast, 
that it merely serves as a background for the appre- 
ciation of music of a higher class. I do not believe 
that this is true. The musician might say that it is 
only through discords that perfect music is brought 
out, and that, if the discords were left out, music 
would have a degree of monotony in it that it does 
not now possess. Granting the truth of this, it does 
not follow that the unreal emotions should be ex- 
ploited in order to make the real emotions manifest, 
for everything necessary in the way of contrast will 
be found by following natural methods. I might il- 
lustrate it in this way: that even the joyous songs 
written by composers of northern countries have their 
undertone of sadness as the result of the great struggle 
of life. In other words, there will come into the 
music quite sufficient of emotional disturbance with- 
out any special effort of the composer to put it there. 

The great composer is a psychologist of no mean 
order ; he deals with aH the hidden wonders and mys- 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 185 

teries of life. Through his soul, he comes in touch 
with the great Over-Soul and all his inmost feelings 
are quickened. With his inner ears he hears the 
soundless music ; with his inner eye he sees the wonder 
and beauty of invisible colour. The outcome of this 
consciousness is to renew his mind so that he is able 
to give outer beauty of form to the rhythm and melody 
that he feels and hears in the inner life. The form is 
only the casket that contains the real jewel, but it is 
fitting that the casket, which is made to contain such 
priceless jewels, should be a thing of beauty. 

Beethoven declared that music is a higher revela- 
tion than science or philosophy, and adds that it was 
listening to the Spirit within him that inspired him to 
produce music. 

Mozart said: "I have never written the music that 
was in my heart to write ; perhaps I never shall with 
this brain and these fingers, but I know that here- 
after it will be written; when, instead of these few 
inlets of the senses, through which we now secure im- 
pressions from without, there shall be a flood of im- 
pressions from all sides, and instead of these few 
tones of our little octave, there shall be an infinite 
scale of harmonies. For I feel it, I am sure of it. 
This world of music whose borders even now I have 
scarcely entered, is a reality, is immortal." 

The greatest composers and many of the greatest 
thinkers have always thought of music as an inspira- 
tion from within; a consciousness almost apart from 
themselves ; something they listened to and heard, and 
later tried to transcribe. But in the doing of this, 
they felt unable to reproduce all that they were capa- 
ble of hearing. The highest music contains within 
itself all that is fundamental in human life. It tells 



i86 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

of the whole passion of the soul ; it does not deal with 
concrete thought or expression, yet there would be 
no thought or expression without music, for music is 
the all-compelling power. There is a rhythm to all 
that we are able to feel and the deeper the feeling, the 
more effectively it acts on both mind and body, renew- 
ing and quickening all our mental and physical forces. 
Under such a condition there is a perpetual influx of 
power making for greater mental and physical health 
and strength. New and living ideals are generated in 
the mind, new desires fill the life ; and desire, in turn, 
becomes a motive power that is the forerunner of all 
performance. 

Rhythm is the first expression of feeling. If God is 
love, then rhythm must be the first outpouring from the 
Great Heart of love. We do not see or hear rhythm. 
We feel it through the inner impulse of life. We 
''feel after" God. We hear, and perhaps see, musi- 
cal sounds and musical melody. We are able to give 
body or form to musical sounds by the use of har- 
mony. Rhythm is the first impulse of love ; harmony is 
its last expression. Music comes out of the invisible as 
much as the soul of man comes out of the invisible. 
Man, when embodied on this earth, begins, as it were, 
to make a new environment for himself to change 
the face of the earth, to cause the desert to blos- 
som and bring forth fruit. Everything he comes 
in contact with is to some degree affected by his pres- 
ence. Music exerts the same kind of influence because 
music like man's soul exists in the great Over-Soul, 
and radiates from that Over-Soul to the very circum- 
ference of life itself. And while it is more truly sub- 
jective than human thought or ideals, it nevertheless 
exerts a power on all natural expression, for all na- 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 187 

ture is an expression of God, and the rhythmic, melo- 
dious music which exists in the heart of the soul must 
extend to the most objective phenomena, because, if 
God is at the centre, He is also at the circumference. 
And where God is, there is feeling, rhythm, and mel- 
ody, only our ears are so dull that we cannot hear. 
Doubtless, people may object to my claiming such uni- 
versal power for music; but it is well to remember 
that every form, whether small or great, whether it 
be ethereally light or materially heavy, is in a state of 
constant, ceaseless vibration and when rhythmic sound 
acts on the molecules in the atmosphere, it also acts 
on all other bodies, producing in them kindred vibra- 
tion. So it is no mere figure of speech when we read 
that the stars sing together and that the leaves on the 
trees clap their hands and are glad. The whole ma- 
terial universe is responding to music, and is also giv- 
ing out music. We are living in a universe in which 
One Life is immanent in all objective form and in 
which One Life is also transcendent; Life that is 
within and without all things. Nature has a living 
soul just as much as man has. The soul of the uni- 
verse is not divided, separated, or detached. One Soul 
lives in all, and through all and above all. Every- 
thing is a manifestation of the divine Love and 
Wisdom that underlies all existence. Everything is 
brought into objective form through the rhythm and 
melody of vibration. Divine Love is at the centre. 
Divine Love permeates the whole. Love begets the 
rhythm and melody, and harmony forms the outer 
evidence of the music that lives in divinity. 

Every movement of life represents in an exact way 
the causes which produced it. Music is not the result 
of just one emotion in life, but of every true, rhythmic 



i88 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

emotion. Love is the white flame of Hfe which gives 
to us the prismatic colour of music. Love represents 
the summing up of the full passion of life. Joy and 
gladness, faith and peace are differentiations of Love. 
Every real emotion, then, has its own rhythmic vibra- 
tion. Every real emotion tells its own story through 
melody and harmony ; so that outwardly the world re- 
ceives from the invisible, and translates it into the 
visible; for there is nothing hidden but shall be re- 
vealed. Real music tells of God and heaven, of love 
and joy, when left, as it were, to tell its own story. 
In reality, it does not deal with man's superficial, emo- 
tional nature; it knows nothing of hate, jealousy, 
anger, and revenge. Man may have prostituted music 
to that end through the introduction of certain ele- 
ments foreign to the highest music. The written li- 
bretto with its words conveying jealousy, hate, mur- 
der, the excessive use of chromatics and certain uses 
of the minor chords has, without doubt, made the 
average person believe that pure music could be made 
to express man's lower emotional nature to the same 
degree that it could express the divine nature. Music 
does not deal with the unrealities of life, but deals 
with the whole and the complete ; not with the things 
that are changing and passing, but the changeless, the 
eternal side of life. Love is the essence of music. 
Love permeates the whole universe and Love does not 
contain within itself any quality which in any way 
contradicts itself. The music that comes to the com- 
poser from cosmic consciousness is never filled with 
the strife of life, but with the triumph of overcoming 
the joy of living, the strength and the perfection of 
life. The composer in giving form to his music, pos- 
sibly through not being able to comprehend fully the 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 189 

import of the message he had to give, has not always 
succeeded in giving to it the highest or the best possi- 
ble form. Practically all the great composers, at one 
time or another, have known that they were unable 
to give full and complete expression to that which 
they had received. 

There can be no question that major chords more 
fully express the grandeur, power, and brilliancy of 
music than do the minor chords. But I feel sure that 
when minor chords are used to portray the beauty 
and perfection of life, the composer who uses them 
with this object in view, will not find them lacking. 
Too often, however, they are used to depict man*s 
unreal emotional nature. Let it once be understood 
that man does not and cannot create music any more 
than he can create energy, that music is universal and 
lives in eternity. But man may discover it, and 
through knowledge give it form or embody it. Be- 
tween the inner rhythm and the outer harmony, there 
comes the melody which may be said to partake, in a 
way, of both inner and outer. The melody is the 
mystical language in the mind of the composer, but it 
is to be made more tangible, in a way, to the listener 
through the use of harmony. Back of the melody is 
the feeling which gives it all its colour ; later the har- 
mony gives it form. 

No matter how impressive, or beautiful musical 
ideas may be, something of their value will be lost un- 
less they contain symmetry, beauty, and elegance of 
form. Perhaps no one ever realised the perfection of 
outer form to the degree that Mozart did ; and it may 
well be that in our present-day life, with all its unrest 
and discord, we are unable to appreciate Mozart's 
music at its real worth. In the striving after something 



IQO THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

new, we have let go of the old ideals and old forms of 
beauty and have not as yet been able to grasp new and 
higher ones. In the radical tendency of the age, we for- 
get that beauty and truth are eternal, and too often in 
discarding what we deem to be the old things in life, 
the partial and the incomplete things, we also discard 
much that is just as necessary to the life of to-day 
as it was necessary when it first tqok form in life. 
Nothing that is good, beautiful, or true can ever be 
lost. The incomplete must make way for the coming 
of that which is whole and complete. At the present 
time, there is much that passes current as music that 
has no real place in the musical world whatever; 
counterfeit music without rhythm, melody, or har- 
mony. And to make the matter even worse, if that 
were possible, such music is associated with words 
lacking in all true poetic expression. This is not only 
true as regards the secular songs of the day, but it is 
equally true of religious music. It comes from the 
effort of people who have neither developed the poeti- 
cal nor musical instinct, people who have no knowl- 
edge of music or poetry, but who try to pattern after 
or copy what others have done in a far better way. 
Such music and poetry can do no more than awaken 
the most superficial thoughts and emotions. The pro- 
ducers of it, not only stand in the light of their own 
development, but do harm to others. Civilisation that 
bows down before such false gods is not worthy of 
the name. God's most beautiful gift to His chil- 
dren should not be desecrated by ignoble, mercenary 
motives, solely to attain ambitious ends. I would 
rather encourage than discourage the one who would 
seek to become a musical composer even if such a 
one could not become great in his profession; be- 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 191 

cause In the very effort he makes to compose, he is 
enriching his own Hfe. No one can compose music 
without benefiting his own nature, without getting a 
more beautiful outlook on life, if he is honest in his 
efforts and tries to do the very best he is capable of 
doing. The composer may only hope to give beautiful 
and soul-satisfying music when he draws it from the 
depths of his highest consciousness. No matter how 
much he may study the works of other composers, 
no matter to what degree he may have developed form, 
he must have the musical consciousness in order to 
make music. The imitator or the plagiarist can never 
produce music worthy of the name. He stands in 
the same relation to a real composer that an iron or 
a brazen bell does to a silver or a golden one ; and yet 
the world is full of people who are so unattuned, so 
discordant in mind that they prefer that which is 
hardly the semblance of music or poetic beauty to that 
which is both real and beautiful! Sudermann has 
said: "The greatest and highest thing one possesses 
in the world is his life's melody — a certain strain that 
ever vibrates, that his soul forever sings, waking or 
dreaming, loudly or softly, internally or externally. 
Others may say his temperament or his character is 
so and so. He only smiles, for he knows his melody 
and he knows it alone.'* What each person needs is 
to find his own melody, and not only to find it, but to 
let it sing hour by hour in his every-day life. Through 
doing this, he will find that he is making progress, 
that his melody is bringing to him not only the real 
satisfaction of his present life, but is preparing the 
way for a still higher life. 

Haydn was once asked which he liked the better of 
his two oratorios, the "Seasons" or the "Creation." 



192 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

He said the ''Creation," because in the ''Creation" 
angels speak, and their talk is of God. The great 
Handel completed the score of the "Messiah" in four- 
teen days. Speaking to someone of the "Hallelujah 
Chorus," he said: "I did think I did see all Heaven 
before me, and the feet of God Himself." It is said 
of him, also, that his tears mingled with the ink as 
he penned the notes. Said Helmholtz: "Just as in 
the rolling ocean, the movement, rhythmically re- 
peated, and yet ever-varying, rivets our attention and 
hurries us along. But whereas in the sea blind physi- 
cal forces alone are at work, and hence the final im- 
pression on the spectator's mind is nothing but soli- 
tude — in a musical work of art the movement follows 
the outflow of the artist's own emotions. Now gently 
gliding, now gracefully leaping, now violently stirred, 
penetrated, or laboriously contending with the natural 
expression of passion, the stream of sound, in primi- 
tive vivacity, bears over into the hearer's soul unima- 
gined moods which the artist has overheard from his 
own, and finally raises up to that repose of everlasting 
beauty of which God has allowed but few of His elect 
favourites to be the heralds." 

The greatest composers of music lived to express 
the full passion, power, and beauty of music, often los- 
ing all thought of the self and becoming so absorbed 
by the consciousness of music that space and time were 
entirely forgotten. It was thus that they produced 
their greatest works and by their music helped the 
whole world to a better understanding and a truer 
conception of what life should be. And in the doing 
of this, they had their compensation, although on the 
face of it, it might seem that all the physical poverty 
and hardships they endured, and the mental anguish 



PROPHETS OF THE INVISIBLE 193 

and sorrow they passed through would make it appear 
that Hfe gave them Httle in the way of compensation. 
But while the world for which they worked gave but 
little in return, they were not without the real satisfac- 
tion and joys of living; for all creative work brings 
with it its own reward. When heart and mind and 
hands are all engaged in an effort to produce some- 
thing new or something beautiful, then to the person 
thus engaged comes the sense of exaltation wherein 
he rises above the world and the things of the world. 
For the time being he is in a new world; he has lost 
all consciousness of the past, and is living in the won- 
der and beauty of the eternal present. 

"There is sweet music here that softer falls 
Than petals from blown roses on the grass, , 
Or night-dews on still waters between walls 
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass; 
Music that gentler on the spirit lies, 
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes; 

Music that brings sweet sleep down from the blissful skies. 
Here are cool mosses deep 
And thro' the moss the ivies creep, 
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep, 
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep." 

Were it not for this power to penetrate, as it were, 
into the invisible and realize the wonder and ecstasy of 
a higher consciousness, it would not have been possible 
for a great composer to exist and produce really beauti- 
ful, soul-satisfying music, in a world constituted as it is 
to-day, or even in a world of the past. For the every- 
day world of man's life is so filled with the things 
that do not count, the dull, dead materialism and the 
constant grind of the body of humanity in order to 
maintain a purely physical existence, that all spiritual 
vision is entirely shut out, or at least, largely ob- 



194 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

scured. The composer, therefore, finds it necessary 
to leave the every-day consciousness and enter, as it 
were, a new world, one filled with music and colour, 
and with this his whole life becomes inspired, and be- 
cause of his new vision there are set up in his mind 
new ideals to be expressed through musical tones. 
The composer who can fully realise the truth of this 
and who uses his divine power to express the eternal 
love and joy of life, becomes a true saviour of the 
world to lead man out of the thraldom and bondage 
of material thought and desire, and cause him to real- 
ise not only his kinship to God, but his true relation 
to his fellow-men ; and the composer who through his 
life-giving music shall awaken the love of God and of 
man in the breasts of his fellow-men, shall rank with 
the greatest prophets of all time, a divinely inspired 
prophet with a divinely inspired message of peace and 
good-will to all men. 



CHAPTER XIV 

life's love melody 

"Love took up the glass of Time, and turn'd It in his glowing 

hands ; 
Every moment, lightly shaken, ran itself in golden sands. 
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords 

with might; 
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, past in music out of 

sight. — Tennyson. 

"Music that is born of human breath 
Comes straighter to the soul than any strain 
The hand alone can make." — Morris. 

"A tone 
Of some world far from ours. 
Where music, and moonlight, and feeling are one." 

— Swinburne. 

"Feeling and music move together, 
Like a swan and shadow ever 
Floating on a sky-blue river 
In a day of cloudless weather," — ^Lowell. 

Music, like everything that is fundamental in life, 
partakes of the heart or feeling, of the mind or 
thought, of the sense or physical expression, and can 
never be of any one plane of being, but ever must em- 
body all three. We might go farther and say that 
there are four great planes of being, or states of con- 
sciousness in human life: The Elemental objec- 
tive or physical state wherein man is under the control 
of his sense nature; the Rational or mental plane 
wherein man uses his mind to think, reason and form 
judgments; the Psychic which might be defined as 
an intermediate state between the mental and the spir- 

195 



196 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

itual nature, partaking more or less of both, sometimes 
giving clearer vision and deeper insight, and again 
when misused acting as a barrier to higher develop- 
ment; the Spiritual consciousness or that state of 
being in which man realises his at-one-ment with God, 
It is in this state that what is known as Cosmic Con- 
sciousness is attained to which I made fuller refer- 
ence in a former chapter. This spiritual consciousness 
may be said to be the crowning development in the life 
of man on this plane of being. All planes must be 
considered as necessary stages in the development or 
evolution of man, and from first to last there are vary- 
ing degrees in music fitted to the needs of every plane. 
Some have thought that music is purely emotional, 
but it is much more than this. Sometimes it may con- 
tain emotion to a greater degree, and again it may 
be said to be as much a product of mind as of 
emotion. The soul of music is emotion, but the body 
or form it takes is an expression of thought. Music 
may have so much of the mentality of the composer 
in it that it loses its power to awaken the inner emo- 
tions of the listener, and yet an individual of a de- 
veloped mentality can enjoy it as he might enjoy a 
book or a lecture, solely for its mental stimulus. 
Music, in its earliest stages, appeals to man more 
largely through his sense nature than in any other 
way, but, as its evolution continues, the appeal to the 
mind comes with it, and still later, as it begins to ex- 
press something of the higher or spiritual side of 
life, it appeals to the heart or to the higher love na- 
ture in man. I feel sure that the music which awakens 
the deepest emotions in life must affect the whole 
man, spiritually, mentally, and physically. I believe 
any action that awakens man's higher emotional na- 



LIFE'S LOVE MELODY 197 

ture lends Itself, also, to a greater mental percep- 
tion and increased mind activity, as well as to a 
renewing and strengthening of man's physical organ- 
ism. When this knowledge comes to be an accepted 
fact, people will strive more and more to awaken their 
higher emotions; for the real perfection and strength 
of life must come through such renewing. 

Some may contend that the music which awakens 
the spiritual or intellectual activities has but a mo- 
mentary effect, lasting only while one is listening to 
it; there may be very full enjoyment for the time, 
but when the music ceases, the effects are soon lost. 
I do not for a moment accept this as truth. I believe 
the effect of the music has become a real and per- 
manent possession of the listener, a part of those 
riches that are stored away in the subconscious mind ; 
furthermore, if music will induce even a temporary 
state of thought and feeling, temporary states may 
become permanent. When, through thought and feel- 
ing, there is once established a definite habit, it be- 
comes comparatively easy to retain the impression 
which then sets up a new rate of vibration in man's 
spiritual, mental, and physical life. Listening to such 
music a number of times will tend to make the vibra- 
tion permanent, for, when the life of man vibrates 
from the emotional to the mental, and from the men- 
tal to the physical, then such a condition sets up causes 
which result in perfect health of mind and body. 

Music has not as yet been given its proper place. 
When we come to understand it aright, we shall know 
that there is no one other influence in human life that 
can be so effective for good ; that, through its aid, the 
very highest aspirations can be called into being, and 
the latent power in man developed and used to a far 



198 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

greater degree than man has as yet dreamed of. In 
fact, there are possibiUties to be disclosed through the 
Influence of music that man as yet has not even con- 
ceived, but in the near future he is going to realise 
many of these hidden powers, and use them in direct- 
ing his own life. When the influence of music is 
brought to bear in a direct way for the accomplish- 
ment of definite ends and purposes, then we shall real- 
ise something of the real power that music exerts upon 
life. In the near future, music will be made to soothe 
and comfort the weary, both of mind and body; it 
will uplift the sorrowful, bring hope to the despon- 
dent, inspire and encourage to action, and cause peo- 
ple who are spiritually and mentally blind to see and 
to open their ears that they may hear. 

I have referred in the beginning of this chapter to 
varying planes of consciousness. The man or the 
woman on any one of these varying planes of con- 
sciousness whose feelings are not affected by music, 
has not lived life in a vital way, neither can it be said 
that such people have entered into the real joys or 
pleasures of life, since rhythm, melody, and harmony 
are all necessary to every plane of living and the one 
who has rounded out on any plane, from the physical 
up, must have entered into the joys and sorrows of 
life as conveyed through the medium of music. It is 
not in living the partial life that one is able to enter 
into and appreciate life at its full; the well-ordered 
life is rounded out by the ability to enter into and get 
good from everything. 

Whatever we know ourselves to be deficient in, that 
is the one thing we should try to cultivate. Life can 
only be understood in a whole and in a complete way 
through knowing it and living it. We may say that 



LIFE'S LOVE MELODY 199 

we can profit to some degree by the experience of 
others, but after all it is only the one who has lived 
who really knows, and life is intended to be lived to 
its full, not in some things but in everything that 
will make for harmonious living. In striking the 
keys of life, we shall not always produce harmony; 
but it is through the constant practice that the real 
knowledge and harmony is attained. We should re- 
member, too, that whatever we bring to life we re- 
ceive from it again. The discords we create for 
others come back to us redoubled. The harmonies 
we are able to bring to brighten and uplift our fellow- 
men are returned to us in an increased way to bless 
and to comfort our own lives. This is the law, and 
all may reap the joy and the gladness of life, the love 
and the hope of life, if they so will. We come to 
know and understand things or people aright only 
through learning to love them. It is through loving 
understanding that the clouds of life are dispelled and 
the real appreciation of any thing or person comes; 
so, if any person be lacking in what some term the 
musical sense, let him desire to know, to understand, 
and to feel music, and through such desire must come 
the love and the appreciation of music, and this in 
turn will tend to the enlargement of his mental and 
spiritual horizon. 

Sometimes we speak of people as being discordant. 
A discordant person is one who is not attuned, one in 
whom the melody, rhythm, and harmony of life are 
absent. To produce accord it will be necessary to 
establish all three. While each individual is a unit, the 
unit may be said to have three phases through which 
it expresses itself: soul, mentality, and sense. Love 
and the deepest feelings of joy, faith, hope, and peace 



200 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

are all soul states ; logic, imagination, thought, reason, 
and judgment are all mind states ; while the five senses 
are most closely allied to man's physical organism. As 
all three fulfil their purpose, man strikes the major 
chord of his being. If he is using mind and sense 
alone, the two only make an incomplete chord. The 
great object of life must ever be to produce a full 
chord and, having done this on any scale of being, 
man is preparing the way for the sounding of a new 
chord on a still higher octave or plane of being. 

The fundamental note of the highest music in life 
is love. It is like the white ray which when broken 
up discloses the seven prismatic colours. So love, 
when differentiated, expresses itself through faith and 
hope, through peace and joy, through goodness and 
gentleness, and all these give to life its real character, 
and its rhythm, its melody, and its colour. Life is a 
constant process of development. One step taken in 
the right direction brings with it the necessary vision 
for still another. The ideals we hold in mind are al- 
ways a little beyond our performance, and with every 
effort we make to live life in the best possible way 
the ideal is ever enlarging. We never arrive at any 
ultimate end, for what seems to be the end of one 
phase of living is only the beginning of another. 
Progress is eternal. 

Soul-satisfying music must come from the soul. 
For only in this way can music become the universal 
language that can be heard and understood by all peo- 
ple. The thoughts expressed through words, whether 
those words be spoken or sung, do not necessarily tell 
their story to ears unfamiliar with the language used ; 
but when heart speaks to heart from the depths of 
inner feeling, then none are so deaf but that they may 



LIFE'S LOVE MELODY 201 

hear. Music may be made such a potent factor that 
it will awaken the very highest feelings in the life of 
man, and through the awakening will come a life 
such as he was intended to live from the beginning. 
The whole life will become a vibrant melody filled with 
the real joy of living. If we could only realise that 
as life progresses there is an ever-increasing wonder 
of music and colour, but that only through inner de- 
velopment can come the appreciation of it, then we 
should look forward, not with doubts and fears to 
sorrowful, or painful, or evil consequences that may 
befall us in the future time, but with pleasurable anti- 
cipation to the greater joys that we know await us. 

The greatest of all music must be the product that 
comes, as it were, directly from the soul — music that 
is coloured by the highest emotions. All music 
that changes and passes away is of the purely superfi- 
cial emotional kind which may produce disturbances of 
mind and body, but never affects man's soul for good 
or for ill. As the soul can only recognise the real 
in the music of life, the more we use the highest and 
best music we already have, the more shall we be 
able to enter into that higher consciousness from which 
all divine music is drawn. Every great composer, 
poet, painter, or sculptor has, at one time or another 
in his life, done certain work that, in a way, trans- 
cended that which his mind was able, in a sense, to 
conceive. It was as though something else worked 
within him to will and to do, that his work was more 
an expression of his deepest feelings than his best 
thought. Although his thought was necessary to the 
giving of form to his work, nevertheless, the work 
held far more of what he had felt than of what he 
had thought. We call this inspiration, and inspira- 



202 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

tlon is drawn from one great Source. It comes 
through the soul, the individual being brought into 
contact with the Universal Soul. It is through such 
contact that the highest state of feeling in man's soul 
is brought into activity ; and, in turn, this activity be- 
comes the factor that is going to renew the mind of 
man, and through this renewing power will come the 
true outer expression of whatever one is doing, be it 
music or poetry, painting or sculpture. The expres- 
sion takes its form from the new and living ideal that 
has entered the mind from the divine Source of Be- 
ing. It is told that Fra Angelico gave himself up to 
hours of prayer before he began to paint, and one 
need only to look at his pictures in order to feel some- 
thing of that sanctity and ideality he was able to put 
into them. Michael Angelo, too, must have been in- 
spired when he painted the wonderful frescoes of the 
Sistine Chapel, and his "Last Judgment;'' also when 
he sculptured the incomparable statue of Moses. 
Beethoven's symphonies, at times, seem to have been 
inspired by something which transcended the mind of 
man, and Wagner, in certain parts of his operas that 
have to deal with the more spiritual side of life, is able 
to appeal to the very highest and deepest within the 
life of man. 

Every original production, if it be truly great, is 
drawn from universal consciousness, and is as much 
a product of w^hat is called inspiration as the sacred 
writings are. In the Cosmic Consciousness is con- 
tained every plan and every ideal that is later to be- 
come expressed through man and take form as a thing 
of power and beauty on earth. It is in this way that 
we become the channel through which God works, 
and the great work, in so far as it is perfect, is the 



LIFE'S LOVE MELODY 203 

work of God expressed through heart, and mind, and 
hands of man. Its imperfections are solely occasioned 
by man's limitations. Those who are ready to receive 
inwardly and to express outwardly all they receive 
are the people who will be in line to receive the still 
greater ideals. It is always through the use of the 
knowledge and the power of which we are in posses- 
sion that we prepare ourselves to receive still greater 
knowledge and power. The worker, no matter in 
what field he may be engaged, should always seek to 
give expression to the very highest within him, and 
it will be through doing this that his greatest joy in 
life will come. Talented composers should cease writ- 
ing all music that panders to man's lower instincts. 
But again I say, if there were no demand for such 
music, it would not be written. The public gets what 
it asks for; when the world demands the best, it will 
get the best. There are some countries — where the 
people want to listen to the best music, consequently, 
when they go to the gardens, parks, or public places 
where music is to be heard, they get the best. As yet, 
in our own country, the great mass of people are satis- 
fied with music that is elemental in nearly all of its 
characteristics, and such music cannot be expected to 
uplift either spiritually or mentally. There are many 
engaged in trying to cultivate among people a greater 
love for good music, but what with the trashy musie 
written by those who do not understand the first prin- 
ciples of music, and the people who are content to 
listen to it, the way of the reformer is both a hard 
and a difficult one, and our composers derive but little 
incentive from the public in the way of real appre- 
ciation of their work. One of our most talented, as 
well as idealistic composers, Edward McDowell, up 



204 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

to a very recent date, was more fully appreciated 
abroad than in his own country. We have too few 
composers in our country to neglect any of them. 
Why should Americans not become great in music as 
well as in so many other avenues of life? I know 
quite well some of the objections to be met with: first, 
that we are utilitarian and commercial in our tastes 
and desires, that a deadly realism prevails the country 
over, that the sense of symmetry and beauty is very 
largely deficient; but surely there are enough idealists 
in this great country who are unwilling to prostitute 
their idealism to prevailing materialism, who, work- 
ing unitedly together for a higher order in every walk 
of life, could create new desires and new tastes in the 
public mind so that the love of beauty in art, drama, 
and literature might become the greatest factor for 
mental, moral, and spiritual uplift. Ideals rule the 
world, and the few who stand true to their ideals will 
eventually see the multitude coming out to learn of 
them, just as surely as the multitude of people went 
out to John the Baptist in order to learn of him when 
he was living in the wilderness. 

Life only becomes grand and beautiful when we 
bring the grand and beautiful to bear upon it, when 
we make a courageous and persistent effort to give 
expression to the highest ideals we are capable of re- 
ceiving. The value of such ideals may not at once be 
recognised by an indiscriminating public, even though 
we work our hardest to express them. It is difficult 
to make the world see anything that is close at hand ; 
the perspective of years is needed before people are 
ready to. build monuments to the great souls who have 
lived true to their ideals, and who have given far more 
to the world than they have received from it. But 



LIFE'S LOVE MELODY 205 

compensation, whether it comes in one way or an- 
other, is absolutely sure of coming to the one who lives 
up to his highest conviction of truth. The life that 
is lived with the one object of giving to the world the 
highest and best it has to give, is doing far more for 
its real development than could possibly be done in 
any other conceivable way. To the one who seeks to 
impart of his riches, greater riches are always being 
added. It is the privilege of the composer or the 
musician to give what he has to give to the world as 
fully and as freely as he has received it; and in the 
doing of this, his soul is being kept open to a con- 
tinual influx of music from the realms of life and 
light so that, finally, he becomes attuned to all the 
wonder and the glory of rhythm, melody, and har- 
mony that is in the great Cosmic Consciousness. 



CHAPTER XV 

MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 

"To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder, 
Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply: 
Its choir the winds and waves, its organ thunder, 

Its dome the sky." 

— Emerson. 

"Then I said, T covet Truth; 
Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat, — 
I leave it behind with the games of youth/ 
As I spoke, beneath my feet 
The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, 
Running over the club-moss burrs; 
I inhale the violet's breath; 
Around me stood the oaks and firs; 
Pines, cones, and acorns lay on the ground; 
Above me soared the eternal sky, 
Full of light and deity; 
Again I saw, again I heard, 
The rolling river, the morning bird; — 
Beauty through my senses stole, 
I yielded myself to the perfect whole. — Emerson. 

I BELIEVE that most people have a mistaken idea as 
to what constitutes a religious life. To some, it is a 
mere observance of outer forms: going to Church, at- 
tending the weekly prayer-meetings, and conforming 
in a general way to the rules and regulations of the 
religious body to which they may belong. With 
others, it goes a step farther than this, and consider- 
able thought is given to the effort of suppressing outer 
manifestations of inner desires and passions, and to 
such people this seems to represent self-control. Again, 
with others, asceticism, with strict regulation of diet 
and frequent fasting, sometimes with prayer, but more 
often without it, constitutes still another phase of re- 

206 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 207 

ligion. The above illustrates to a degree, what the 
majority of mankind believes to be religion. But 
there is nothing in such religion that will make either 
for the beauty or the harmony of true living. All 
such religion retards rather than aids natural progress. 
It would seem to me as though real development 
must follow along natural lines, and any departure 
from this would cause some to miss and others to 
overshoot the mark. The different phases of religion 
I have enumerated have in them comparatively little 
of the rhythm, melody, and harmony of life, all of 
which should be essential parts of the religion of life. 
The truly religious life must become all three, be- 
cause the fundamentals of music are also the funda- 
mentals of human life. The so-called religion of to- 
day, instead of being beautiful, is rather a gruesome 
affair. The only hope to be derived from such a con- 
dition as exists is that the average person no longer 
believes such teaching necessary to the living of life. 
The theory, or the shell of it still remains, but the 
substance is practically gone. We may have been 
miserable sinners in the past, enshrouded by the gloom 
of fears and doubts, or worms of the dust that dis- 
figured God's beautiful earth; but the substance of 
such belief has vanished. People in their services 
may mumble over the words, but they are no longer 
awed or frightened by them. The old forms and 
creeds are passing away to make room for a new re- 
ligion that shall be filled with brightness and hope, 
a religion of joy and gladness that will really pro- 
claim peace and good-will to all men. 

Joy and gladness have their hidden source in the 
depths of the soul. Joy and gladness, peace and good- 
will will find expression in life's new song. When in 



208 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

the religion of the future the soul is awakened to its 
own potential powers and possibilities, music will 
wield a larger influence than any or all other factors. 
Empty forms, ceremonials and creeds will be replaced 
by soul-satisfying music. The dry sermon and the 
shallow prayer which the priest or clergyman offers 
up for the enlightenment of his fellow-man, or the 
direction of the Supreme Power, shall pass away, and 
in place shall come a mighty chorus of voices engaged 
in praising God in a grand symphony of song that will 
do more for the spiritual development of those en- 
gaged in singing or listening than a thousand prayers 
or sermons could do uttered by man. 

Who has not been more impressed by the religious 
spirit in the music of ^Tarsifal'^ than by any dozen 
sermons ever delivered? There Is no way known to 
man that will reach and touch his highest nature so 
effectively as the highest music that comes to him 
through the medium of the voice of his fellow-man. 

In life, everything done in the right way is a re- 
ligious act; and everything done In a wrong or a dis- 
cordant way is an Irreligious act. We know that 
when rhythm can be Introduced into work or into play, 
it not only makes for ease and grace of movement, 
but it gives pleasure to the one using it ; and we might 
say that the pleasure in turn became melody, and be- 
cause of the rhythm and melody living in and being 
expressed through the life, one becomes in the most 
harmonious way related to one's environment. After 
all, what more Is there in life, what is there to call 
for any greater attention than the Inner rhythm and 
melody of life, and the outer harmony and beauty of 
life? Do not these cause one to reach up and beyond 
everything that is unreal and untrue ? Does not such a 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 209 

state resolve itself Into goodness from first to last? 
If there be any departure from goodness, surely it 
must be the result of the temporary failure to live the 
rhythmic life from centre to circumference. I use 
the word "rhythmic" here advisedly; because if v^e 
leave rhythm out, it would not be long before all the 
melody and harmony would be gone, too. Once the 
religious life is founded on music, the burden of sin 
will be lifted and the effects of sin, which we call 
disease, will be removed. For rhythm, melody, har- 
mony and beauty can never introduce fearful, dis- 
cordant or unwholesome things into life: the same 
source does not send forth sweet and bitter waters. 
I know that many will take exception to some of the 
statements I have just made, and will argue that if 
my statements were true it would be impossible for 
professional singers or musicians so often to be dis- 
cordant and inharmonious themselves ; surely, if music 
were the panacea for all our mental and physical 
states, we should get some full expressions of its bene- 
fits from those who are most actively engaged in it. 
This looks, on the face of it, a reasonable argument. 
I think, however, it can be shown that it in no way 
disproves my statements, because much of the music 
of the present time is not written with the object of 
calling out the best that is in man. In fact, in some 
cases, it would seem as though composers wrote their 
music to appeal to man's lower or elemental passions, 
and this, to a degree, will explain why so many singers 
and musicians lead what might be called unmusical 
lives. They are under the spell of a subtle hypnotism 
that exists in certain kinds of music and acts almost 
like morphine to deaden one's sensibilities, so that 
nothing is seen in its right proportion. Consequently, 



2IO THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

people under the influence of such music become men- 
tally and morally unbalanced. 

It is generally found to be the case that musicians 
are very sensitive, that they respond either to good 
or to evil influences more quickly than do most people, 
and perhaps this is one reason why people are more 
lenient in their judgment of them. They say: "Oh! 
it is the musical or poetical temperament,*' and that 
is explanation enough ; as though the musical or poeti- 
cal temperament should be one means of leading 
people astray. Granting that the sensitive tempera- 
ment is necessary, it does not follow that it need be 
a source of weakness: in fact, when this temperament 
is fully understood by its possessor, it becomes one of 
the greatest elements, not only for self-protection, but 
for the development of all that is highest and best in 
life. It is only that too often the sensitive tempera- 
ment is appealed to by the false and superficial emo- 
tions, which the unclean mind of the composer has 
put into his music. We should understand that a prin- 
ciple which can produce the greatest good, may when 
prostituted to an evil end or purpose, produce the 
greatest evil. I would not, for a single moment, think 
of saying that the varying kinds of music that we have 
at the present, could be made to serve any high or holy 
end ; but I do think that there could be selected no end 
of music already written that would supply the needed 
stimulus for a truly religious life, and if our musi- 
cians and singers were engaged in singing and playing 
such music, we should not only have better mentally 
and morally balanced lives, but be more spiritually en- 
lightened as well. 

When the public demands the highest and best of 
music, it will find that composers, singers, and instru- 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 211 

mental musicians are ready to give it. When, too, the 
great composer comes to understand that he is a 
prophet sent of God to help impart God's message to 
man, then he will try to compose in a way worthy of 
his high office. He will not be swayed by earthly con- 
sideration, so that at one time his music is prostituted 
to ignoble ends and purposes, while at another time, 
through the inner melody of his life, his music carries 
with it something of the breath of heaven; perhaps 
something that the angels of God have already sung. 
The composer attuned to universal consciousness 
heard and caught the strain; and because of this, he 
was able to impart through his written music some- 
thing of that spirit that he had felt, something of the 
melody he had heard before he was able to give it 
form. Too many of the great composers have had to 
live under such conditions as made it next to impossi- 
ble for them to become imbued with the deepest and 
highest consciousness, a consciousness they might have 
realised in greater fulness if it had not been for all 
their worries and anxieties concerning their daily lives. 
When we think of such a man as Schubert, of how 
much he gave to the beauty of the musical world and 
how little he received for it in a material way, the 
only wonder is, that song could sing through his life 
with such a wonder of tenderness, and such sweetness 
of love and beauty. The world owes a debt of grati- 
tude to Schubert that it can never repay, and what 
I write of him is equally true of many composers 
who have lived in the last three hundred years, com- 
posers who have been hindered and hampered on every 
side, without sufficient to supply their daily needs, yet 
who, in spite of all, have produced music that has, 
perhaps, done more to make the world a better place 



212 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

to live in than any other one factor in life. When 
people read Wagner's autobiography, they say he was 
an extremely selfish man in that he wanted others to 
furnish him with home and food, and the neces- 
sary things of life; but suppose that we look at 
the matter in this way: even if that had been done, 
humanity would still be the debtor to Wagner be- 
cause he gave ten thousand times more to the world 
than the world ever gave to him. He was conscious 
of having a message, his one and greatest desire was 
to give that message. Anything that hampered or in- 
terfered with the giving of it, caused him a degree of 
impatience and irritation of mind. People may say 
that he received money from his operas and this 
should have proved sufficient compensation for his 
work. We know that it was nothing of the kind; that 
for years he was in debt ; and how he wrote the won- 
derful things that he did, considering all the disad- 
vantage he laboured under, is really a marvel. No 
great composer should ever have to barter for the 
product of his genius or even to think how his daily 
needs are to be supplied. He is more essential to state 
and nation than the greatest general of the army, or 
the greatest statesman of the nation. He is the high 
priest who is in more direct relation with Cosmic Con- 
sciousness and has a greater message to give to the 
world than any other living man. At the present time, 
we have our great monuments for the great warriors 
who worked death and destruction on earth, while we 
reserve our little monuments for the great composers 
who have brought light out of darkness and who were 
God's chosen instruments to show man how to es- 
tablish His Kingdom on earth. 

I believe that there is a direct correspondence be- 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 213 

tween rhythm, melody, and harmony — the trinity in 
music — and rehgion, philosophy and science — the 
trinity that goes to form consciousness in man. 

Rhythm corresponds to feeling. We "feel after all 
that is highest and best." The Bible speaks of man 
"Feeling after God"; and Jesus, speaking of God, 
said: "God is Love." Love is a state of feeling. Love 
in the life of man responds to love in the Universal 
Life. This is v^hat might be called religion in the fij-st 
degree. 

Melody is sound in rhythmic motion. It gives an 
expression of rhythm through ideals. iVgain, philoso- 
phy in the life of man is an attempt, through the writ- 
ten or spoken word, to give expression to inner feeling, 
to try to define that which seems .almost indefinable. 

Harmony in music is the relation that one chord 
bears to another ; so that all music may have harmony 
of form. In the same way, science is an externalised 
demonstration of what man has thought and felt. His 
inner feeling and vision becoming actualised in his 
outer world. Religion is, therefore, first of all, a state 
of feeling, then thinking, and lastly one of expression. 
To sum up, when man lives a life of law and order 
the first expression will be rhythm — feeling — the in- 
termediate state will be idealistic melody, and later 
this rhythm and melody will take form through right 
action. This, then, should constitute the real religion 
of life. 

There is still one other quality that should result 
from living these three: that is, the development of 
Beauty. Beauty is the overshadowing radiance of a 
full and complete expression of all three. Inner pas- 
sion, idealistic thought, and right action can never be 
separated from living beauty, but all are inseparably 



214 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

bound together by it. Beauty serves to awaken the 
inner life and call out, as it were, a still greater love 
for the beautiful. 

The importance of the love of beauty cannot be 
over-estimated. Neither is it possible for any one to 
realise how much it brings to life, how much of joy 
and hope, how much of gladness and sunshine, how 
much it colours one's speech, how much it gives ex- 
pression to one's acts. We cannot measure its worth ; 
we cannot count its value. It lifts a rich man out 
of a sordid state of satisfaction with worldly posses- 
sions, and endows the poor man with a w^ealth he 
could not buy with all the world's gold. We do not 
purchase God's gifts. The sun shines alike for all. 
All men breathe the air, but one man may enter into 
the enjoyment of the sunshine and the vibrant breath 
of the fresh air in a way that another knows nothing 
about. Not that any gift of God's is withheld from 
any one, but all gifts must be appropriated, must be 
used in order to be enjoyed. Therefore to those who 
seek beauty for the sake of beauty she will be found ; 
and the seeking and finding of anything in the highest 
sense should be in order to use it. No matter how 
good a thing may be, it must be used in order to ful- 
fil its real purpose; and if one has it in possession 
and fails to use it, it becomes a hindrance rather than 
an aid to development. While God is the giver of 
every good and perfect gift, yet this much is expected 
of the individual, that he shall lay hold of the gift, 
make it his own, and then use it for his own highest 
good and the good of others. An increasing knowl- 
edge of the beautiful will cease, when having entered 
into a degree of knowledge and appreciation of the 
beautiful one fails to impart of his riches to others. 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 215 

A man is justified in using his own ways and means 
in giving. He is justified when he withholds from 
those who have no desire to receive what he has to 
give, he is also justified in withholding where there 
can be no real appreciation of his gift, but he is never 
justified in withholding from those who are ready and 
desirous of receiving. If he would grow in posses- 
sions and add to their value, he must do so through 
the giving of whatever he may have to give. Only 
through the use of one's blessings comes the still 
greater blessing. 

When a man feels the wonder and the beauty of 
the Presence of God in his life he must seek to trans- 
fer the inner feeling into beautiful ideals, and these 
ideals in turn should colour his spoken word and his 
every act, so that there may be that oneness of life 
which radiates from the centre to the circumference 
in a perfect, rhythmic way from all that one feels, 
from all that one thinks, and from all that one does. 
This is the fulfilling of the perfect Law of Life. 

In one's quest of the beautiful, the eye should be 
kept single so that the whole body may be filled with 
light. We should never dwell upon, or allow our 
minds to picture anything that is not beautiful. It is 
not necessary to have contrast in order to understand 
in a more perfect way anything of which we may be 
making a study. In the subconscious mind we have 
all the contrast needed to form a background for any 
or all of life's pictures. It is, indeed, in no way neces- 
sary to seek evil in order to understand good. But 
let us remember that every manifestation that is lack- 
ing in grace and beauty is only a partial expression, 
and expression which has not as yet fulfilled its de- 
sign but which, in the process of evolution, will take 
its place as a thing of beauty. 



2i6 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

All true criticism should mean, not dwelling upon 
and magnifying anything that is lacking in beauty but 
rather the showing forth of whatever beauty the sub- 
ject possesses and suggesting how still greater beauty 
may be added to it. People do not need to be told 
their faults in order to be shown a way for overcom- 
ing them. We draw out the hidden beauty that exists 
in another life only through the full recognition of 
whatever beauty of thought, feeling, or action it is 
already expressing. That which lives in anyone's life 
is constantly seeking to awaken the same quality in 
the lives of others. Whatever of beauty the heart is 
feeling, whatever of beauty the mind is thinking, 
whatever of beauty the hands are doing, all become 
examples for others, an aid, an incentive to a loftier 
conception and a truer expression of beauty. 

Some say that this is a utilitarian age and that real 
beauty is not appreciated, that the world of to-day is 
in quest of money, of everything that will make for 
physical comfort, rather than the unfolding to the 
higher planes of life, therefore any effort that is put 
forward to help humanity to a greater knowledge of 
the beautiful is lost. I do not think this is v/holly 
true, but even if it were true, there would be the 
greater necessity for the prophets of the ideal and 
beautiful to give expression to their ideals, to show 
the loveliness of them, and so induce others to set 
forth in the quest of what they themselves have 
learned to love. 

One of the prophets of old has said that the people 
perish for lack of the vision, so, he who is in posses- 
sion of this vision, the vision of higher ideals, the 
vision of more beautiful states, or even the vision of 
beautifying the external world through artistic ex- 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 217 

pression should give his vision so that the people may 
not perish but rather be quickened and renewed. 
Ideals rule the world. The world to-day is hungering 
and thirsting after the beautiful; it may be that this 
hunger and thirst will bring new prophets of the beau- 
tiful, for wherever desire exists, there exists with that 
desire the material necessary for its fulfilment; wher- 
ever there is demand there must of necessity come 
the supply. 

The world is ready for another renaissance in 
sculpture, in music, in painting, in all that adds to the 
beauty of life. Art must keep pace with science. Art 
must keep pace with religion. And so we may be 
even now in the springtime of a new art, the morning 
of a new day, when the world of man's activities shall 
be enlarged, brightened, and cheered by the new mani- 
festations of those living ideals which even now are 
beginning to illumine the world of soul and mind; 
a new day when the world shall be made to blossom 
as the rose. This new beauty will bring with it the 
true joy of living, for the sense of beauty will always 
awaken the kindred sense of joy. The ardent desire, 
the fervent prayer, the beautiful ideal entertained and 
lived by any individual will always help in bringing 
to fruition a new world of beauty which shall even- 
tually be disclosed to all who have eyes to see or who 
have ears to hear. He who seeks to give expression 
to his highest ideal is not only enriching his own 
mind, but is helping to enrich the world. 

In his ideals there is always something that is beau- 
tiful in vision and thought, waiting only to be dis- 
closed in outer form, and the effort after true expres- 
sion brings with it an ever-enlarging ideal, an ever- 
increasing beauty. It is always through knowing and 



2i8 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

doing that we grow. All true effort to express some- 
thing beautiful brings with it an increasing apprecia- 
tion of beauty as well as an ever-unfolding life and 
a greater power of expression. The New Testament 
tells us that love is the fulfilling of the law, and the 
fulfilling of the law is not that which is unfinished or 
partial, but only that which is whole and complete. In 
the spirit of love one always seeks to give of the best 
or to do the best that lies in one's power to give or 
to do. 

Wherever the spirit of love is, there is the fulfil- 
ment of life's laws, and with all such fulfilment beauty 
is to be found. Every person who is living outwardly 
his inner ideals is expressing the divine ideal of being. 
Into all the religion of righteous living there enters 
the element of beauty. The Supreme Architect fash- 
ions everything even from the least of things to the 
greatest in a beautiful way, giving to each thing a 
peculiar beauty that is all its own. Beauty is the great 
high priestess of religion. But there can be no beauty 
apart from rhythm, melody, and harmony because 
all external creation is dependent upon all three for 
its existence. Because through their aid there came 
into being all forms, and with their withdrawal or 
ceasing to be, all forms would pass away. While this 
is true, yet it is impossible to separate beauty from 
any one of the three. Rhythm is expressed through 
beauty of feeling, melody through beauty of ideal, 
and harmony through beauty of expression. So we 
build our temple of pure and undefiled religion four 
square, and the foundations are laid on rhythm, 
melody, harmony and beauty; and the temple will not 
be whole or complete if any one of the four corners 
should be left out. But if we are using them all, then 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 219 

we are building our house upon the eternal rock of 
truth. A temple that is *'not made with hands" but one 
that is "eternal in the heavens," one that has existed 
before the foundation of the world, but one that man 
has to discover for himself in order to know the truth 
of his own being. For countless ages the quest has 
gone on, for countless ages man has sought to find 
out the hidden mysteries of being. He has thought 
his life to be one of ceaseless conflict wherein the evil 
is always arrayed in opposition to the good ; not real- 
ising that good was all, and that good lived in his 
own life; that his so-called evil was only a necessary 
shadow to make the realities of life evident to him; 
that all power had been given him to overcome, to re- 
place the partial or the incomplete with that which is 
whole and complete, to allow the true rhythm and 
melody of life to flow into and, I might say, to over- 
flow his whole being. He has not known that this is 
what he sought, and he will not know it until he 
realises it within his own consciousness. But because 
he is seeking he shall find, and because he knocks, the 
door shall be opened to him. After all, it is concen- 
trated effort that counts. The realisation of what life 
means, that its inner ideals must be fashioned into 
outer forms. 

Some people have thought that a religion which 
should meet with the acceptance from many people 
could be portrayed by beauty alone. But the difficulty 
would be that beauty could only be perceived by the one 
who had awakened to a love of the beautiful, and 
might not have as much of an appreciation of beauty 
as one might have of rhythm or melody. It seems 
that rhythm or feeling must always be first, that 
melody or ideal must follow, and that harmony or 



220 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

outer expression must exist before one can grasp, 
in a full and complete way, the true nature of beauty. 
But in all four the whole religion of life may be 
summed up. Such a religion would know only God 
as its Founder, would be devoid of everything in 
the nature of creed, would make in an irresistible 
way for the brotherhood of humanity. From it there 
would come a new birth for the world. I believe the 
prophets of old foresaw the coming of such a time 
when they said: "Ye shall go out with joy, and be 
led forth with peace : the mountains and the hills shall 
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees 
of the field shall clap their hands"; "the desert shall 
rejoice, and blossom as the rose" ; and "righteousness 
shall cover the face of the earth as the waters cover 
the face of the deep." 

It may seem to the musician or to the lay reader 
that the writer is taking an exaggerated view of what 
music might be made to do ; but if music can be made 
to appeal to man's inner feeling to a far greater de- 
gree than anything else, and if the highest feeling in 
man's inner life consists of love of God and love of 
man, then surely music is going to draw us closer to 
God and our fellow-man than anything else that we 
know of can do. Music and love, colour and beauty, 
harmony and expression, will give us the real religion 
of the deepest feeling; a philosophy of the highest 
thought, and a true science of right living. Right liv- 
ing being the product of inner feeling and true think- 
ing, when this comes into the life of man, then his 
pessimistic religion and philosophy will pass out and 
he will have what the poet Milton dreamed of: 



MUSIC, BEAUTY-RELIGION 221 

"Divine Philosophy! 
Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose. 
But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets 
Where no crude surfeit reigns." 

And we may rest assured that in the time to come, 
we are going to do everything in a truer and a more 
beautiful way than we have ever done in the past. 
Because of our quest and desire for truth, life is go- 
ing to render up to us the greater joys of being. The 
happiness and contentment that we now dream of are 
to be fully realised in our every-day life. The new 
must supplant the old. 

In the religion of to-day there is comparatively 
little that is making for spiritual, moral, or mental 
uplift ; because there is so much in it that is fundamen- 
tally wrong, so much in it that can never be made to 
appeal to the hearts and minds of men. No religion 
need expect to last that is not founded and grounded 
in the eternal laws of life. Man feels the absolute 
necessity of religion: something to love, reverence, 
and worship. These feelings in his life, unless they 
find full and free expression, keep his mind in a state 
of unrest and longing desire for something he has 
not yet attained. Why should the deepest thing in 
life find its expression in an unlovely exterior? The 
greatest number of the religions of the world have 
failed to hold the hearts and minds of the people be- 
cause the externals of religion have seldom repre- 
sented in any true way, the real religion of life. That 
which is beautiful at the heart of life, should express 
something of the inner beauty when it takes form in 
outer symbols; for it is only thus that it becomes a 
true expression of religious feeling. It should ever 
be man's object to portray the wonder and beauty of 



222 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

the inner life in every effort he makes to express him- 
self in the outer world. For man's inner conscious- 
ness of thought and feeling must eventually find full 
and free expression in his outer world. True re- 
ligion should be expressed in joy and gladness, it 
should be the brightest and most beautiful thing in 
life. If God has created a universe and endowed 
it with untold beauties that are rhythmic, melodi- 
ous, and harmonious, that have colour, grace, and 
symmetry, a universe filled with living music where 
everything from the tiniest flower with its head up- 
lifted to the sun, to worlds, and systems of worlds 
and suns are all engaged in singing the praise of their 
Creator, surely it w^ould seem as though man, the 
most highly developed of all God's creation on this 
earth, should praise Him in a more beautiful way 
even than all other things of His creation. The whole 
vast universe is not only filled with melody and har- 
mony, with grandeur and beauty, with energy in mo- 
tion, but with law and order as well; and a religion 
that does not contain all of these need never hope to 
live in the hearts and minds of all people. The di- 
vine way is the only way, and just as soon as man 
takes knowledge of that way and begins to consciously 
co-operate with God, will he have begun to live a truly 
religious life, a life that will make for the joy and the 
happiness of his mind, and for the health and strength 
of his physical body. He must leave the old ways and 
means behind. He must cease conforming merely to 
the letter of the word, and come under the spell of 
the Spirit and be guided by it in the Way, the Truth 
and the Life. For only by so doing can he free him- 
self from the law of sin and death, and consciously 
become a son of God. 



CHAPTER XVI 

MUSIC AND CHARACTER 

"The man that hath no Music in himself 
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds 
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." 

— Shakespeare. 

"The harp the monarch minstrel swept. 
The King of men, the loved of Heaven, 
Which Music hallow'd while she wept 
O'er tones her heart of hearts had given, — 
Redoubled by her tears, its chords are riven! 
It softened men of iron mould, 
It gave them virtues not their own; 
No ear so dull, no soul so cold, 
That felt not, fired not to the tone. 
Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne!" 

— Byron. 

If there is any one question of more importance 
than another in life, it is certainly that of character 
building ; because character or the lack of it makes or 
unmakes the man. Man has the power within himself 
to feel, to think, and to act ; and it is the use or misuse 
of this power that makes for character or the lack of 
it. The ideal man is one who is thoroughly rounded 
out, who has used to the full the attributes of soul, 
the faculties of mind, and the physical senses, and 
who through their use has developed soul, and mind, 
and body to their fullest extent. When we say that 
a man has a strong character, we mean that he is 
living life in a strong, true way, that he has strength 
of mind and purpose, and that he is able to carry both 
into his daily work. Such a man commands the re- 
spect of his fellow-man; but the weak, characterless 
man, the man who is negative in all his thinking and 

223 



224 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

doing, is neither respected nor trusted by his fellow- 
man. It is character that counts in life. The man who 
is independent and self-reliant, who thinks clearly, 
and who acts from conviction, brings a far greater 
influence to bear upon life than could any number of 
weak, negative-minded people. If character, then, is 
so necessary to life, it should be the part of wisdom, 
not only to desire it, but to work for it, because char- 
acter, like everything else, has to be worked out. None 
of us in life receives anything that is worth having 
save through working for it. Yet we all know that 
two men may do equally hard work and one far out- 
strip the other, both as regards the quantity and the 
quality of the work. Now what constitutes the differ- 
ence between the two ? It will be found that one man 
is putting greater intelligence into his work, and be- 
cause of this is getting larger results. A man may 
be strong physically without being able to accomplish 
much in the world ; a man may be mentally and physi- 
cally strong, and succeed in accomplishing much more ; 
but the man who is spiritually, mentally, and physically 
strong, will be the man who will do the really great 
things in life; for when a man is developed in all 
three aspects of his nature, he is thoroughly equipped 
to do the things that come to him to do. Let me ex- 
plain: the spiritual is the inner emotion or feeling, it 
is the dynamic energy of life; mind is thought and 
reason, it perceives the form that things should take; 
the body or physical organism is the plane of expres- 
sion belonging to both soul and mind, where thoughts 
and feelings later take form and are expressed. As 
heart and mind and body all work in harmony with 
each other, man is able to do his complete, his per- 
fect work. Character, then, is developed through the 



MUSIC AND CHARACTER 225 

use of all three, and no one can become fully rounded 
out unless he is functioning on all planes. 

If a clear mind and a strong, healthy body are fun- 
damentally necessary conditions to harmonious living, 
the question that will naturally arise is how may these 
two ends be attained? The athlete will tell you that 
the body may be strengthened and perfected through 
a wise course of physical training, and that intelli- 
gence must be used so that all parts of the body may 
be equally strengthened, but his theories in and of 
themselves can never make a weak man strong. It 
is only as a person puts into practice the theories he 
may have derived from another, that he can hope to 
gain his physical health and strength. In other words 
he gains his power through the use of power; he re- 
ceives his energy through the expenditure of energy. 
For everything we receive a price is exacted before 
we can call it really ours. Everything in life depends 
upon this great law of reciprocity, of giving and re- 
ceiving; and so, we give of our possessions, and 
through doing this enter into larger possessions. Na- 
ture exacts of us no indiscriminate giving, but a wise, 
orderly, righteous giving that considers both the ob- 
ject and the end of the giving. In the building up 
of the body all excess or intemperance in exercise, 
instead of making for greater health or strength, takes 
from both. There is a wise way of doing every- 
thing, and if that way is known and followed we 
get the best results. The body is strengthened and 
renewed, when the mind chooses exercise of a nor- 
mal, natural kind to strengthen alike all parts of the 
body. In this way the salvation of the body is being 
worked out, and it is being saved from weakness, 
pain, or disease. That which holds good as regards 



22'^ THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

the body holds good in a larger way concerning man's 
mind. The weak or negative minded person need 
never hope to develop a strong, vigorous mind as 
long as he continues to allow his mind to dwell upon 
the negative things of life. If he would bring strength 
out of his weakness, it must come from a continuous 
effort toward clear, concise, positive thinking. Strength 
of mind can only come through a real use of the 
mind. Mental work is as necessary for the strength- 
ening of the mind as physical work is for the body. 
He who uses his mind each day and hour of his 
life, in an effort to deal in a true way with every- 
thing he may have to do, giving thoughtful considera- 
tion to his every act, will have far less reason to 
regret the things done or left undone than the one 
who goes ahead blindly without taking thought. Peo- 
ple who fail to use their minds to think and to reason, 
usually form what might be called biased opinions of 
almost everything in life; and because of this mental 
condition they are constantly making mistakes, which 
interfere not only with their own welfare but with 
the welfare of others. It is necessary that each one 
should make a mental effort to see all sides of any 
given question ; for the one who does this is far better 
able to judge, not only what is going to be best for 
his own interest in life, but also to respect the rights 
and interests of others. No one need ever expect to 
attain any lasting success in life, if such success is 
the result of some one's loss; for reciprocity — giving 
and receiving — is the real law of living. Character is 
founded on righteousness; that is, feeling, thinking, 
and acting in the right, in the best way, and each 
one forms or develops his own character. If there is 
only one way to develop character, then all people. 



MUSIC AND CHARACTER 227 

sooner or later, must take that way. If each person 
has to work out his own salvation through his own 
effort, the sooner he knows it and sets himself to 
the doing of it, the sooner will he accomplish the de- 
sired end; but that end will only be reached through 
rightly directed personal effort. One may profit by 
accepting the advice of others, but in the end the in- 
dividual must do his own thinking. For if anyone 
is going to see and know life as it is, he must bring 
his own thought to bear upon it, and not the thought 
of by-gone ages, not even the thought of those whom 
a man may regard as better thinkers than himself. 
He may be thoroughly conversant with the thought 
of the past, and he must be willing to listen to, and be 
tolerant of, the thoughts of others, but in the last 
analysis he must fall back on his own highest and best 
thought; only in this way can be hope to strengthen 
his mind. He can no more grow mentally strong by 
proxy than he can grow physically strong by having 
another do his physical exercises. So mental health 
and strength are worked out through exercise of the 
mind; and the mind frees itself from all sense of sin 
and sorrow, when all its faculties are being used in a 
thoroughly natural way. 

Now we come to a third step in the progress of 
life, which is more essential than either of the others ; 
and that is the development of man's spiritual nature; 
this again is accomplished through individual work, 
but work of an order that is more subtle yet more 
effective, In working out the physical, man dealt 
with the physical. It was a work which, while under 
the direction of the mind, was nevertheless of a thor- 
oughly objective nature. In his mental work, while 
less objective, he was able to form in mind thought- 



228 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

pictures which in turn dealt with the objective phases 
of Hfe; but when man comes to develop his spiritual 
nature, he has neither the physical nor the mind's 
more refined pictures or ideals. It is quite as if he 
were entering a new world when he enters into the 
spiritual realm of his being; for in this state the old 
consciousness is left behind him, that is, the conscious- 
ness of objective life or the mental consciousness com- 
posed of thoughts and ideas that partook of his ob- 
jective life. The new consciousness consists of what 
a man feels; that great world of feeling which has 
many names for its different states, such as faith, joy, 
hope, love, gentleness, etc. Now one might say that 
it is easy to work on the physical or mental plane, but 
how can one work on a plane where all seems to be 
so ethereal, so transcendental? But it is on this plane 
that the master workman comes into being. On the 
first two planes everything is largely of a transient 
nature. The work we did there was always having 
a beginning and an ending. Now the new conscious- 
ness knows nothing of beginning or ending. It is the 
consciousness of being; it looks neither backward to 
the things of the past nor yet forward to the things 
of the future; it lives in the eternity of the present. 
How exercise or how develop in a still larger way 
this consciousness? Through a constant use of feel- 
ing by relating feeling to thought so that each thought 
we think is made beautiful because of the melody, 
colour, and rhythm that comes from feeling. 

"All thought begins in feeling — wide 
In the great mass its base is hid, 
And, narrowing up to thought, stands glorified, 
A moveless pyramid." 



MUSIC AND CHARACTER 229 

Feeling is the soul of all music; and it can truthfully 
be said that only as we enter into the everlasting con- 
sciousness of love have we entered into the Kingdom 
of God, and become attuned to the music of the 
spheres. Why is it people always think of the angels 
as being clothed with white and singing or playing on 
harps? Why should we identify music with angelic 
beings and heavenly places? Simply because music 
is an expression of the divine in man and he must, 
of a necessity, associate the most wonderful and beau- 
tiful things of this life with any heaven he may ex- 
pect to dwell in at some future time. The white is 
symbolic of purity. Man has a larger conception of 
what he should be, than he is as yet able to express; 
he places his ideal heaven in some future time, failing 
to realise that heaven is a state of consciousness, and 
that he may have his heaven here and now if he so 
wills it. Heaven is not dependent upon environment, 
but upon the love of rhythm in his own life, for when 
once the inner melody is established, the outer har- 
mony takes permanent form, not in a hard or set way, 
but rather in a plastic way that leaves it possible for 
one to make new and harmonious adjustments wher- 
ever and whenever in his life there exists the necessity 
for so doing. 

Sir Oliver Lodge, in one of his books, says that 
there are two great facts that the scientific world is ab- 
solutely agreed on. The first of these is energy and 
the second motion. Energy is a state of ceaseless mo- 
tion, but there is a third factor quite as important, 
and that is, that energy is ever in a state of rhythmic 
motion, so that the waves produced by sound, colour, 
electricity, and light vibrations are definite rhythmic 
waves which can be mathematically measured and 



230 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

counted. Energy, rhythm, and motion pervade the 
whole universe. They constitute the creative and sus- 
taining principles in life, principles that affect every 
part of the visible and invisible universe. If law gov- 
erns the whole, then law must govern the part. If 
energy in rhythmic motion creates all form, then the 
body of man can no more be exempt from such crea- 
tion than any other form or forms in the universe. 
All proceed from one Source; all are the results of 
one Law. We may designate by different names the 
different degrees of the workings of law, but that in 
no way changes the law. Universal law and order 
prevail throughout the universe. We sometimes talk 
of atmospheric sound vibration which has beginning 
and ending; and again we speak of etheric vibration, 
such as the vibrations of electricity and light, that 
have neither beginning nor ending, and we might 
superficially reason that here are two entirely distinct 
kinds of vibration ; that one is a ceaseless state of vi- 
bration apparently without beginning or ending, while 
the other has both beginning and ending and is only 
of temporary duration. After all, what seems to be 
a difference of kind is only a difference of degree. 
The difference in kind arises solely from man's limited 
consciousness, his inability to see and to know things 
as they are in reality. There is just as much an 
eternity to sound vibration as there is to light or elec- 
tric vibration, but man, in the present stage of de- 
velopment, is limited to the hearing of approximately 
seven and a half octaves of musical sounds, and there 
are three and a half more octaves of sound that he 
has as yet been unable to translate into music. Un- 
doubtedly, however, as he continues to unfold to his 
higher powers and possibilities, his ears will become 



MUSIC AND CHARACTER 231 

attuned so that, by degrees, these different octaves of 
sound, note by note, shall become music. Moreover, 
in their becoming there shall be disclosed to his hear- 
ing still other octaves of sound that he v^as unable 
to hear before, and these, in turn shall become music; 
and what is true concerning music will be equally true 
concerning colour. The writer is convinced in his 
own mind that there are far lower and far higher rates 
of sound and colour vibration than the ear and the eye 
of man have as yet heard or seen. If for more than 
seven octaves we are able to hear musical sounds, 
and after that we have still three octaves of what 
we now term unmusical sounds, surely it is because 
our ears are not attuned to their vibration. It does 
not follow that they are unmusical, but that as yet we 
are unable to translate them into music. For all sounds 
that are heard from the very lowest to the highest 
must produce music when in a state of rhythmic vibra- 
tion, whether we are able to hear that music or not. 

But as man unfolds to his higher powers more and 
more of these sounds will become musical to his hear- 
ing. It is a scientific fact that in the last 200 years 
there has been an increase in pitch, and that the con- 
cert pitch of to-day is higher than it was less than a 
hundred years ago, also that we see far more of colour 
than we did fifty years ago. There is an ever-as- 
cending scale of being, and we are daily and hourly 
engaged in climbing the heights of being when the 
inner and outer life are attuned through the rhythm 
and melody of the inner, and the beauty and harmony 
of the outer. It is a wonderful thought that through 
the aid of the divine music that lives within us, we 
are trying to give expression to a new song of life. 

Elsewhere I have said that the body of man 13 a 



232 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

whole orchestra of musical instruments. Some poet 

has said: 

"Strange that a harp of a thousand strings, 
Should keep in tune so long." 

Every string in this harp can be made to respond to 
universal vibration. Furthermore, not only is this 
true, but when we consciously begin to apply to life 
the underlying principles that go to produce all music, 
the harp will yet come to be consciously tuned by the 
musician so that it need never get out of tune. 

Our own earth in its movement around the sun, in 
its turning on its axis, in its response to the energy 
given out from the sun, must be making music, and 
the very atmosphere in which it moves must have an 
octave of music all its own which, however, may be 
only one of the notes in the grand harmonies of crea- 
tion. So the body of man which epitomizes, in a small 
way, the planet, may be an octave of music which 
in turn forms a note in the harmonies of humanity. 
Of course we must ever see that the body is only the 
instrument or instruments which the musician uses, 
and that the real music of the body must be the 
rhythm, melody, and harmony which proceed through 
soul and mind, finally producing its music in and 
through the physical organism, so that soul, mind, and 
body are in perfect unison with all music throughout 
creation; all blending, as it were, in one grand sym- 
phony of rhythm, melody, and harmony. 

Ideals in mind are themes which have to be wrought 
into music. They form, as it were, the architecture 
of music, they are the harmonies of symmetry and 
form. Back of these lie the rhythm and the colour 
which will beautify, glorify, and bring into being the 
living music of life. 



MUSIC AND CHARACTER 233 

In the past, character has been builded to quite a 
degree on what might be called the externals of life; 
outer actions, things that one did or left undone, tem- 
perance in eating and drinking, and many other things 
which, while good in themselves, were, at best, but a 
washing of the hands or a making of the platter clean ; 
the letter of the word that was too often lacking in 
the spirit. Character that would be evolved through 
the instrumentality of music would have to go much 
deeper; it would deal, first of all, with man's inmost 
feelings; it would take form in his ideals, and last of 
all would be expressed in his actions, thereby reversing 
the whole process of life. The soul in man receives 
its music from the Universal Soul, but it does not al- 
ways follow that man through his mentality or his 
physical organism, is able to give out that which he 
possesses potentially, therefore it is necessary that 
others, who are able to express through musical com- 
position, the voice, or musical instruments, should use 
what they are in possession of in order not only to 
advance their own development but to call into living 
expression the latent music in the lives of others. 
Some years ago, I was acquainted with a blind man 
who could use his voice in such a way as to make 
musical instruments respond to it. I knew of another 
person who, while singing in a room in which there 
were half a dozen Venetian glasses, touched some 
tone with her voice that caused all the glasses to sound 
in unison with it. I use these illustrations to show 
how music may be made to call out the music that 
lives, but is, as yet, unexpressed, in the lives of others ; 
to bring about, as it were, a regeneration of life. 

The new birth can come only when the whole order 
of life is reversed; that is, we must stop this vain 



234 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

search after increased life, health, or happiness in the 
outer world and go to the Heart, the Source of Life, 
and there get a new consciousness which is "not of 
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of 
man," but the consciousness which is of the Spirit, 
which is rhythmic, melodious, and harmonious. In 
this way, and only in this way, will character be es- 
tablished. There is but one gospel which will proclaim 
the way of life for people of all creeds, and all people 
of no creed, who have "eyes to see or ears to hear"; 
a gospel that will make for physical, as well as spirit- 
ual, regeneration. For, unto all people is given the 
power to respond, not only to the music that comes 
to them through other lives, but to the celestial music, 
and through such response they become spiritually en- 
lightened, mentally renewed, and physically strength- 
ened. So that the whole life is saved from discord- 
ant, inharmonious conditions. Said Robert Louis 
Stevenson: "We live in an ascending scale when we 
live happily, one thing leading to another in an end- 
less series. There is always a new horizon for on- 
ward-looking men, and although we dwell on a small 
planet, immersed in petty business, and not enduring 
beyond a brief period of years, we are so constituted 
that our hopes are incessant, like stars, and the term 
of hoping is prolonged until the term of life." Yes, 
Stevenson was right when he said we live in an 
ever-ascending scale when we live happily; and his 
simile is a good one from a purely musical point of 
view, for the whole tendency of the upward life is 
in the direction not only of a higher understanding, 
but of a higher musical pitch; indicating to us that 
slowly, but surely, we are translating sounds 5nto 
music; that we are coming, as it were, under the 



MUSIC AND CHARACTER 235 

action of a higher rate of vibration, and, in the course 
of our development, new octaves will be added, 
bringing with them new melody and harmony of song. 
Music will, in the time to come, not only free us 
from our physical ills, but will cause our sins to pass 
away under its divine influence. Why is it that in both 
the Old and the New Testament, when any great 
events are referred to, they are associated with sing- 
ing? At the creation of the world "the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
joy." We are told that when the Christ child was 
born, a great host of angels appeared suddenly in 
heaven, who sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good will toward men." 

"Love, which is sunlight of peace, 
Age iDy age to increase, 
Till anger and hate are dead 
And sorrow and death shall cease: 
'Peace on earth and good will;* 
Souls that are gentle and still 
Hear the first music of this 
Far-off infinite Bliss!" 

A new song that will lead us through the gates of 
eternal day and bring us to a time when time shall be 
no more and the shadows of sin, disease, and death 
shall be left behind forever. 

The effect of music upon character-building and the 
calling out of that which is highest and best in us, is 
perhaps greater and better than anything else in life; 
because it speaks directly to the heart, awakening the 
best impulses; and this, in turn, gives truer thought 
and better action. Music is filled with the optimism 
of the Spirit. Not only does it bring to us joy and 
happiness in our every-day living, but it can be used 
to unfold the mysteries, the wonder and beauty of 



22,6 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

another, a new world of consciousness. At any time 
one may leave this old world and enter into the new 
realisation. It is this which makes it possible to live 
life as it should be lived even when surrounded by 
an environment that is materialistic. The new world 
is open to all who are seeking the higher way of at- 
tainment, to all who desire new vision in order to 
lead more idealistic lives. One may enter into the 
secret places of the Most High when he has prepared 
the way, when he has brought his mind into full con- 
trol, when he is able to still all the thoughts and 
unreal emotions of his every-day consciousness. "En- 
ter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, 
pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." This 
is the injunction of One who knew that there is a 
heaven resident in every soul, and When one has pre- 
pared the way, he can enter into that heaven and 
taste of its joys just as much in this world as in any 
other, just as much in the present as at some future 
time, for the kingdom is within and all who have the 
key may enter at will. For the way of life eternal 
is not withheld from any one who is willing to enter 
and walk therein. 



CHAPTER XVII 

MUSIC AND EDUCATION 

"And music of her woods — no works of man 
May rival these; these all bespeak a power 
Peculiar and exclusively her own. 
Beneath the open sky she spreads the feast; 
'Tis free to all — 'tis every day renewed; 
Who scorns it, starves deservedly at home.'* 

— COWPER. 

"You call me a dreamer. 
Dreams are linked with truth, 
For what the soul most dreams of, most desires, 
Shall lead her up or down. Some day forsooth, 
I shall be that to which my soul aspires." — Whittier. 

"Music resembles poetry: in each 
Are nameless graces which no methods teach. 
And which a master-hand alone can reach." — Pope. 

It is sometimes amazing to grown-up people to find 
to what a degree imagination is developed in the minds 
of children. This is especially noticeable in their play. 
In the enjoyment of relaxation one would think that 
there would not be much mental activity, and yet that 
picturing faculty of mind is awake in them to such 
a degree that one innovation after another is made 
a part of the play; and there is a spontaneousness 
about it that is seldom, if ever, found among grown- 
up people. Many parents try to discourage the growth 
of imagination in the mind of the child. Often they 
look upon it as a lack of truth when the little one 
tells of a wonderful thing seen or heard. Because 
of the discouragement children receive from their par- 
ents, and later from their school teachers, the imag- 

237 



238 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

ination which once lived in their minds is either dulled 
or ceases to be, and the idealistic, imaginative child 
grows into the prosaic, materialistic man or woman. 
So little appreciation have we for the greatest faculty 
of mind we are endowed with ! Said Napoleon Bona- 
parte, "Imagination rules the world," and, beyond all 
question, he must have lived in his imagination, the 
great battles he fought and the great victories he won, 
long before they were either fought or won. 

The imaging faculty comes into play in planning 
and giving form to whatever we intend to do, be- 
fore ever we begin doing the outer work. If this 
faculty can be developed so as to picture in the clearest, 
most concise and thorough way the things that one 
wishes to do, then each thing one tries to do will be 
done, not only in the shortest time, but in the best 
possible way. In our Kindergarten schools there is 
put forth an effort to develop imagination in the 
minds of the children, but the training of the imaging 
faculty ends with the ending of that brief stage in 
education, and the steps that follow in the higher 
education do far more toward deadening the imag- 
ination than ever it was quickened under the Kinder- 
garten training. The real elements of education are 
too often lacking in our schools, colleges, and uni- 
versities. Education becomes largely a matter of cram- 
ming the mind with some things that are useful, but 
also with a great deal that never has had or can 
have any real value to the one who may have acquired 
it. Into every life is written divine knowledge as to 
how that life is to be lived so as to bring to the one 
living it the full development of every power and 
every possibility that is potentially resident in it. Real 
knowledge of life consists in man coming to know 



MUSIC AND EDUCATION 239 

himself, in man becoming acquainted with what he 
is and what he desires to be. Education should have 
for its object the revelation of man's hidden knowl- 
edge and the calling out of this inner power. 

The materialism of both the past and present have 
so interfered with natural living that the greatness 
of life has been overshadowed by what we might call 
the bigness of things. Apparently every country has 
at one time or another to pass through a state where 
bigness comes before greatness. We have our big 
country, our big universities, our big trusts, our big 
canals, our big railroads, our big buildings, but they 
are all big rather than great. Ancient Greece was 
far more concerned in having things great, in endow- 
ing them with a beauty that would awaken and kindle 
the imagination of man so that still greater excellence 
and beauty should be the natural outcome of their 
work. The soul and mind of man are not automatic 
machines for the reception of a thousand or a million 
facts. All the outer should be made to serve in call- 
ing out that which man already possesses, but is un- 
able to use because he has placed so many obstruc- 
tions in the way of his using it. If he could carry 
into his mature life something of the spirit of the 
child that lived in his early life, many of the problems 
which in the present remain unsolved would have been 
solved long ago. It was because the Greeks were able 
to do this that they were able to work out a democracy 
the like of which never existed before, so far as we 
know, and has never been duplicated since. We may 
well ask the question: What made that one small 
country of ancient times superior to any other from 
whatever point of view we choose to look at it? 
Because of its ideals. Its ideals ruled its world. 



240 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Everything in order to be good must be made to 
disclose the beautiful. Beautiful living ideals con- 
ceived in the mind of her greatest people found their 
true expression in the many and varied forms of her 
creative arts. Back of all her ideals there must have 
been something even greater than the ideals them- 
selves that caused the ideals to blossom in mind. 
There are many people living to-day who do not look 
upon the Greeks as having been a strictly religious 
people; but the tree is known by its fruits, and the 
fruits of the tree are but outer manifestations of the 
inner life. So it must be equally true that all the 
many, varied and beautiful forms expressed by Greek 
art were due to an invisible life of which the outer 
forms constituted only the product or fruit. Back of 
it all was the underlying rhythm or feeling that lived 
in Greek consciousness, and the outcome of it was the 
real music of life made manifest through beauty of 
form. As far as we know, the ancient Greek people, 
with the possible exception of the ancient Egyptians, 
were really the only people who used music as a fun- 
damental necessity to right living. Music and edu- 
cation, music and the drama, music and architecture — 
in fact, music as the one supreme underlying factor 
in life. Some of our own philosophers have had 
visions or dreamed dreams of music not only entering 
into human life but also finding expression through 
the human mind in outer forms. Emerson wrote: 

"There is no architect 
Can build as the Muse can; 
She is skilful to select 
Materials for her plan; 
Slow and warily to choose 
Rafters of immortal pine, 
Or cedar incorruptible, 
Worthy her design. 



MUSIC AND EDUCATION 241 

"She lays her beams in music, 
In music every one, 

To the cadence of the whirling world 
Which dances round the sun; 
That so they shall not be displaced 
By lapses or by wars, 
But, for the love of happy souls 
Outlive the newest stars." 

The Anglo-Saxon race, as represented by the United 
States, England and her colonies, have done compara- 
tively little in the way of creative music; in fact, 
these countries have had the power of expression 
through many other avenues that would make for 
world power and riches, yet in the higher idealism 
and beauty of life, so far, they have largely failed. 
If an individual or a nation chooses to make material 
gain and wealth the chief end and purpose of life, and 
works perseveringly with that end in view, the indi- 
vidual or the nation will succeed. Men cannot wor- 
ship God and Mammon. The individual or the na- 
tion that chooses, first of all, to live its highest ideals 
to the full, may lose something of worldly riches and 
power, but will gain infinitely more in what may be 
termed the true growth and development of life. Per- 
haps the time will come when, satisfied with the accu- 
mulation of material wealth, the Anglo-Saxon people, 
as represented by the countries referred to, will come 
to see that mere wealth or power over other people 
does not compensate for what they are losing in a 
hundred other ways. 

We have had few great prophets of music, because, 
through materialistic thought and expression, we have 
made it impossible for a prophet to arise under such 
conditions. Our civilisation of the present bears no 
kind of comparison to the civilisation of ancient 



242 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

Greece. We are behind them In everything save in 
the power to accumulate material riches. And even 
those seem to serve no good end, because people v^ho 
own riches are filled with worry and anxiety in their 
efforts to retain them, and others who are not in 
possession of them are equally anxious and worried 
in their desire to gain them. So on every side capital 
and labor, instead of cooperating, are in a state of 
antagonistic opposition to each other. Class is ar- 
rayed against mass, and mass is arrayed against class. 
And because of this we can have no true idealism 
wherein man will work for the good of his fellow- 
man, or wherein the many will work for the good 
of the needy ones. How can music, which is the very 
soul of life, express itself under such conditions? 
We may give of our wealth and bring the singer or 
the instrumental musician from other lands to cheer 
and brighten our lives for a little time, when we are 
not engaged in a life and death struggle for pounds 
or for dollars; but we are unable to present the right 
conditions for the development of our own people 
who might become great composers, singers, or in- 
strumental musicians. Because London and New York 
can pay large sums of money for opera and other 
musical entertainments, both cities have it. But both 
cities are lacking in a musical or a thoroughly artistic 
atmosphere of any kind. The consequence of all this 
is that our people who would like to take up music 
or art are compelled to go to the countries that still 
continue to love art for its own sake; and the people 
who have no desire for art in any form, stay at home 
and ridicule those who have some little God-given de- 
sire to express something of their own soul life. This 
may seem like a strong indictment; nevertheless it is 



MUSIC AND EDUCATION 243 

absolutely true, and no class of people knows it so 
well as the musicians, painters, and other artists, who 
are struggling to present higher ideals through their 
work, and yet are meeting with discouragement on 
every side. 

In the educational world, comparatively little is be- 
ing done to awaken the inner life so that the imag- 
ination may be quickened; all the qualities which go 
to make men and women of true refinement lie dor- 
mant in the life of student and teacher alike, and men 
and women are becoming as automatic as the machin- 
ery they have to manipulate. The civilisation of to- 
day has given us our railroads, our great steamships, 
our telephones, wireless telegraphy, and all kinds of 
mechanical contrivances for labour saving, but it has 
not given that impulse which makes for happiness or 
joy of living, nor that idealism which uplifts man 
above the world and the things of the world, and 
makes him a Godlike being. This civilisation of to- 
day has not kindled that love of beauty so necessary 
to all true development. The civilisation of to-day 
has builded structures of iron, stone, brick, and mor- 
tar, higher than the ancient tower of Babel ; its mate- 
rialism reaches almost, as it were, to the heavens, as 
though it were possible for a man to climb heaven- 
ward in this way; and the souls and bodies of men 
have been destroyed in order to establish a civilisation 
that is utterly without a soul. We often hear people 
express themselves concerning soulless corporations, 
but the little corporation only symbolises that vast 
corporation which we call civilised society. A stream 
cannot rise higher than its source, and if the source 
has its rise in iron and stone, mortar and brick, then 
the whole structure is of the earth earthy. Deplore 



244 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

it as we will, the facts remain the same and the founda- 
tion upon which this structure rests is made up of 
the souls, and minds, and bodies of men, women, and 
children. It is really terrible to think of, but it is 
terribly and awfully true; and if the society and civ- 
ilisation of to-day be truly a representation of Chris- 
tian thought, then the sooner we find our way back 
to the thought and feeling of ancient, pagan Greece, 
the sooner shall we become Godlike men and women. 
Even if our eyes and our ears and our minds were 
opened so that we could see, and hear, and know, it 
would not be possible for us to lead ideal lives in this 
present generation. The subconscious mind of soci- 
ety is so steeped in the materialism of the past and 
present that it would literally be held in bondage to 
it, whether it wished to or not, and our greatest hope 
could only be for the rising generation and the gen- 
erations yet to come. But all this should be no reason 
why the idealist and the lover of beauty should re- 
frain from trying to bring spiritual uplift to the world. 
No, the condition of things as presented makes it 
imperative on the part of those who know to bring 
all they have of the inner riches of life to overcome 
the darkness and poverty of materialism and to try 
to make this world a better place to live in than it is. 
This is the night of the world, but joy cometh in the 
morning. The morning of the new day may not come 
in this generation, but men and women who have the 
love of humanity at heart may hasten its coming 
through wisely directed effort to implant idealistic 
thought and develop musical feeling in the minds and 
hearts of the little ones ; thereby laying the foundation 
upon which will be erected the real temple of God 
which shall be a true expression of universal music. 



MUSIC AND EDUCATION 245 

"Truth is within ourselves: it takes no rise 
From outward things, whate'er you may believe: 
There is an inmost centre in us all 
Where truth abides in fulness." 

To this end, then, cultivate imagination in the mind 
of a child, in such a way as to direct its imaging 
power into the most beautiful channels. Impress the 
mind of the child with the thought that his ideals 
take form in his mind, and help to shape his life and 
the things he does in life. Explain to him how a 
painter makes his beautiful pictures; that first of all 
he has a canvas and paints of different colours, and 
if he is painting a landscape, with the use of his eyes 
and mind, he gets a mental picture of what he wants 
to depict on his canvas. Then he takes his brush, 
using some colours alone, mixing other colours, and 
he combines all these to make a picture that looks 
like the one he is now seeing. And after a time the 
painter has finished his picture, and later he begins 
to paint still another one, and so his work goes on. 
If he desires to do better all the time in his work, 
each picture he paints makes it possible for him to 
paint a better one next time. 

Tell the child that he too is painting a picture of 
life by using his heart and mind, and if he puts love 
and kindness, good will and joy, and gladness Into 
his picture "and if he tries to live all he is doing, then 
he Is giving expression to a true picture of life. The 
child may ask how he can give expression to his 
picture, and you can tell him through kind words, 
through generous acts, even through the pleasant 
look or smile, that in this way he is just as truly 
giving expression to his picture as the painter does 
with his brush and colours. By using such illus- 



246 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

trations, the child becomes more interested and more 
likely to follow your suggestion, and the story part 
of it aids in awakening the imagination in a healthy 
way. Children often have unhealthy imaginings, and 
frequently it is found that they are caused by the 
nurse or others who have the care of them telling 
them gruesome stories and filling their minds with 
unreal fears, so that they are stimulated in a false 
rather than in a true way. Talk to children about 
nature, of how the plants grow, and the trees blossom 
and produce fruit; or one may talk in an intelligent 
way to a child about music, and how even a child 
life may become musical. Explain to the child how 
rhythm makes everything beautiful, and how easy it 
is through the use of rhythm to work and to play, 
and how it produces a soothing influence of mind and 
keeps his body in a restful condition. Tell him to 
listen to the running of the brooks, the singing of 
the birds, and to hear the beautiful melodies that 
are to be found in both; that if he will only listen 
with his ears, he will find wonderful melodies coming 
from nature that possibly no one has ever heard be- 
fore. Explain to him how rhythm and melody are 
of his soul and mind, but that he has to make har- 
mony in his outer world, and that harmony comes 
through adjusting his little life to the lives of his 
playmates and others with whom he may be living, 
and that all real music has in it rhythm, melody, and 
harmony. In this way you will get him interested 
in music more quickly, and help to lay a sure founda- 
tion for his life. One of the world's greatest philoso- 
phers, Plato, has said that "music is a moral law. It 
gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight 
to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life 



MUSIC AND EDUCATION 247 

to everything. It is the essence of order and leads 
to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is 
the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate and 
eternal form." 

"To know, 
Rather consists in opening out a way 
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape 
Than in effecting entry for a light 
Supposed to be without." 

Let the composer of the present cease catering to the 
morbid, gloomy, vicious, and materialistic thought and 
sing his song of hope that shall gladden and rejoice 
the minds of those who are able to receive it. Let the 
singer and the instrumentalist give of their very best, 
selecting such compositions as will inspire to courage, 
and everything that is grand and beautiful. Let all 
those idealists who can form in mind a true appre- 
ciation of the world's needs, in so far as in them lies, 
bring of the best they have to satisfy a real hungering 
and thirsting after the ideal. Because the world is 
hungering and thirsting, and this is typified the world 
over by unrest. 

"O Music! sphere-descended maid, 
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid! 
Why, goddess, why, to us denied, 
Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside 
As in that loved Athenian bower 
You learn'd an all-commanding power. 
'Tis said, and I believe the tale, 
Thy humblest reed could more prevail 
Had more of strength, diviner rage, 
Than all which charms this laggard age. 
O bid our vain endeavours cease; 
Revive the just designs of Greece; 
Return in all thy simple state! 
Confirm the tales her sons relate!" 



248 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

The world is seeking to find something that will 
satisfy, and in the end such a quest shall not prove 
in vain. The world of nature is filled with grandeur 
and beauty of every Jcind and description, but man 
can only appreciate this as he unfolds to the great 
and the beautiful that exists in his own life. Only 
then will come the full recognition of that which is 
grand and beautiful in nature. The real education 
is the unfolding or becoming conscious of our God- 
given qualities, the becoming enlightened by the spirit 
of love and wisdom, so that the mind becomes filled 
with a new and living idealism ; and this idealism, in 
turn, is expressed in all man's outer work. Living 
such a life is music from first to last ; music that makes 
for the real rhythm, melody and harmony, or the full 
measure of a man. The letter killeth ; the Spirit alone 
giveth life. The world has lived the letter too long; 
it has brought no real profit. Let it begin to live the 
life of the Spirit, and we shall have a new renaissance 
that will bring with it all that goes to make life worth 
living. The nine Muses will bring of their hidden 
riches and bestow them on the world; possibly even 
in a greater measure than may have been done in the 
past ; and the world will pass from darkness into light, 
and the whole earth will rejoice and be glad. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A REFINING INFLUENCE 

"My soul is dark — Oh! quickly string 
The harp I yet can brook to hear; 
And let thy gentle fingei-s fling 
Its melting murmurs o'er mine ear. 
If in this heart a hope be dear, 
That sound shall charm it forth again: 
If in these eyes there lurk a tear, 
'Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain. 

But bid the strain be wild and deep, 

Nor let thy notes of joy be first : 

I tell thee, minstrel, I must weep, 

Or else this heavy heart will burst; 

For it hath been by sorrow nursed, 

And ached in sleepless silence long; 

And now 'tis doom'd to know the worst, 

And break at once — or yield to song." — Byron. 

"Then, music with her silver sound 
With speedy help doth lend redress." 

— Shakespeare. 

The value of true refinement cannot be overesti- 
mated, although the world at large is lack'ng in a real 
appreciation of its worth. Many people who are highly 
educated have little, if any, real refinement. The re- 
fining influence of life comes from within, but it ex- 
presses itself through every spoken word, kindly look, 
or generous act. A gentleman is not such because of 
birth, education, position or money, for the combina- 
tion of air these would not necessarily make a gentle- 
man of anyone. 

To refine is to make pure, to eliminate the dross ; and 
the gentleman is made through the refining and the 

249 



250 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

purifying of his own nature. It is a process of being, 
a state of becoming. While true refinement comes 
from within, nevertheless there is much in man's ex- 
ternal world that may be used as a means to stimulate 
this inner growth: intercourse with refined people and 
an effort to see the beautiful in nature or in art. 
It might seem, at first sight, that refinement acquired 
in this way would prove only of a superficial nature, 
a veneering that simulates rather than something real. 
To a degree this may be true, for one may begin 
with imitation, but any effort expended even in this 
way helps to call out potential qualities that are resi- 
dent in all people ; so outer things may become rungs 
in the ladder of progress by which we mount to 
higher states. 

All the beauty, rhythm, and harmony we are able 
to perceive in our outer environment acts on us some- 
what like a magnet to call out or to attract the living 
melody, rhythm, and harmony that lie within, and 
when the inner is awakened, then we perceive still 
greater beauties without; so that the outer acts on 
the inner, and the inner on the outer to produce an 
ever-expanding life. 

Often there is a very real development going on in 
life so gradually that the person may be all uncon- 
scious of its taking place, and even when he becomes 
conscious that such development has been going on, 
he may find it difficult to account for. One may listen 
to a wonderful musical composition without appar- 
ently being affected by it, but through coming in 
contact with others and listening to opinions expressed 
by them about the composition, the next time he hears 
it he brings something more to it than he did at first, 
and becomes conscious of a beauty of melody and 



A REFINING INFLUENCE 251 

harmony that he was unable to perceive in the first 
place. Intercourse and exchange of ideas with people 
tend to enlarge our mental vision. Sympathetic un- 
derstanding on our part will call out sympathetic un- 
derstanding from others. Constant interchange of 
thought and sympathy with others aids much not only 
in bringing about true relationship with other people, 
but also in helping to develop our lives. Illumination 
comes from within, but the outer thing may be the 
match that serves to light the lamp that is within. So, 
at times, even the little things in one's outer life speak 
to and call out the inner thought and feeling. The 
refining process of life becomes one of daily desire 
and effort. Desire to know and effort to do. In it 
knowing and doing are inseparably linked, as all knowl- 
edge that is acquired is intended to be put to some 
definite use. Refinement comes through a constant 
effort to give expression to one's ideals. Now the 
ideal is always ahead of one's performance, but 
through the effort one makes to give expression to it, 
the ideal goes on enlarging, and because of this one 
need not excuse one's self by saying that if one knew 
better one would do better ; for knowing comes through 
doing. He who does the best he knows will never 
lack in knowledge for still better doing. There are 
many little courtesies and kindnesses that we appre- 
ciate in others, but often fail to cultivate in ourselves. 
I do not think that we should expect from anyone 
else that which we refrain from giving, or are un- 
willing to give. If one gives of the best one has to 
give, the giving becomes a magnet, as it were, to draw 
out the best from others. It is through giving that 
one receives. The more one can bring to life the 
more one will get from life in return. The smile on 



2S2 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

one's face will bring the smile to the face of another. 
The harsh word will call out resentment and be fol- 
lowed by harshness in return. We are so actively 
engaged in all the externals of life that we become 
forgetful of the highest self. If people could be made 
to understand that it is through knowledge of the 
subjective or inner life that they become best fitted to 
live the outer, then they would pay far more attention 
to the development of their inner lives than they do 
at the present. Let me illustrate it in this way: A 
man is anxious to do as much work and get as great 
return from that work as it is possible for him to get. 
He applies himself in a diligent way, but after a time 
he finds that he is either so mentally or physically 
tired that it is only with the greatest effort that he 
can continue his work. If he keeps on making such 
effort, eventually there comes a nervous or physical 
breakdown, and for the time being he becomes inca- 
pacitated for further work, and perhaps during that 
time all the material means he worked so hard to gain 
are lost to him. This is a very common experience 
in life. Now, if such a man could know that there 
are easier and better methods, both in thinking and 
in working, so that he could accomplish as much work 
with half the expenditure of energy and get the same 
result, then he would be very foolish not to employ 
such methods. The writer is assured beyond the pos- 
sibility of a doubt that one can not only acquire a 
better and easier way of doing everything, but also 
be always in possession of a reserve energy, and 
therefore ready to meet any unusual emergency; but 
one can only succeed in doing this through an under- 
standing of the innate powers and possibilities of 
one's own inner life. There is a natural way of liv- 



A REFINING INFLUENCE 253 

ing, and if we follow this way we shall never have 
any reason to regret it. If we desire greater health 
and strength in order to do the work we have to do 
in life, then such desire is the first step toward bring- 
ing us the fulfilment. Whenever we desire with heart 
and mind at-one, we create a magnet to attract to 
us the object of our desire. Man's prayers are not 
intended to please God, but to bring his own life 
into right relationship both with the Source of Life 
and his outer environment. When we enter the secret 
place of the Most High, we do not do so in order 
to bring gifts to God, but rather to put ourselves 
in right relation to Him, so that we may receive 
gifts from Him. This inner life, then, is the real 
source of supply. The outer life is the plane of de- 
mand. In order to keep the source of supply open 
for the influx of every good and every perfect gift, 
we must have the inner rhythm united with melody, 
in order that the mind may be illumined by visions 
of ideal beauty; for the, soul of man may be likened 
to a harp on which all the divine emotions make 
music. Music can be made to sing through the life 
of man and bring with it new revelations, not only 
of the deepest, but of the highest things of life. And 
from this inner revelation there will come not only 
a refining influence on the whole life, but such a radi- 
ance as will enable the life to impart to the lives of 
others something of its own joy and brightness. When 
man's inner life is made to sing, then all his outer 
work is expressed through rhythm and harmony, and 
there is not only an ease in doing his work, but a 
real pleasure. One who has not experienced does not 
and cannot realise the pleasure and joy that come 
through doing real creative work. Creative work con- 



254 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

sists in the divine vision or ideal taking form in mind 
and being followed by the effort on the part of the 
one who has received it to give outer expression or 
form to the inner ideal. One never tires of such work. 
There is no undue haste or loss of energy because, 
where rhythm, melody, and harmony are being truly 
expressed in action, there can be no mental or physical 
tension, and therefore no useless expenditure of 
energy. 

In listening to music or poetry, one should endeavour 
rather to feel their beauty than try to use the mind 
in thinking about it; because such listening, in order 
to serve its true purpose, should awaken the inner 
feeling. In the development of the life of man every- 
thing external to himself should be used simply as a 
means to an end for the full and complete expression 
of his own life. Some might claim that such a pro- 
ceeding would end in extreme selfishness, but just 
the reverse of this is true. Said Pope: 

"God loves from whole to part, 
But human souls must rise from individual to the whole. 
Self love but serves the virtuous mind to wake. 
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake." 

It is only through self-development that a man can 
come into right relation with his fellow-man. It is 
only through soul development that the self at last 
comes into conscious relationship with the Source of 
Being from whence it took its rise. There is what 
might be termed an unconscious selfishness where the 
self seems solely engaged in its own preservation. This 
is one of the necessary stages in life, because the one 
who has never cared for himself cannot come to care 
for any other self, since everything must begin with 
the self and work from that self outward. The part. 



A REFINING INFLUENCE 255 

as it were, reaches out to establish at-one-ment with 
the whole. Through learning how to care for and 
protect one's self there later comes the power to care 
for and protect others. Selfishness and unselfishness 
are varying degrees of the same thing. The first is 
personal desire for happiness, pleasure, and self-pro- 
tection. Later this is all used for the happiness, pleas- 
ure, and protection of others. If one had never lived 
the former part of it, one could never know how to 
live the latter part of it. In the grand economy of 
nature, nothing is ever lost. Everything fulfils some 
purpose. What we call our lower nature is only the 
laying of the foundation for something that is larger 
and more enduring; but from first to last it is all 
necessary, and, consequently, it is all good. Because 
each individual man is a member or part of humanity, 
it follows that whatever makes for his highest and 
best good must also be working through his life for 
the good of others. Because no man liveth unto him- 
self, his feelings, thoughts, spoken words, and his 
actions all exert an influence upon his fellow-men. 
The kind of influence he exerts is solely dependent 
on what he himself is. If his life is filled with melody 
and harmony, then he is showing a way of escape to 
those whose lives are monotonous and discordant. 
While each person is of necessity bound to work out 
his own salvation, yet the value of the light and help 
that may come from another life is almost incalculable. 
We may not carry the burdens of others, but we may 
lighten those burdens through showing them easier 
and better ways of carrying them. 

The person, then, who is trying to purify and refine 
his own life is aiding the world at large probably as 
much as he could in any other way. Later there will 



256 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

come a stage where he will lose all concern for his 
personal will, where he will concentrate his time and 
attention on feeling, thinking, and caring for others. 
That time comes only when a man becomes conscious 
that he is at-one with God and his fellow-man; the 
part becomes, as it were, merged in the whole, the 
personal will becomes displaced by the Universal, and 
the man is consciously co-operating with God. 

The question often arises in the mind of an indi- 
vidual as to how he can best cultivate his mind and 
develop his life; and too often he makes the mistake 
that such cultivation can only be attained through 
what might be called materialistic ways and means 
which give no lasting returns. I know that many 
people will take exception to the advice or suggestion 
I am about to give, saying that if they were followed 
out they would unfit the man or woman for practical, 
every-day living. Now I know that there are two 
sides to life— the side that should be thoroughly ideal- 
istic, and another side that should be as thoroughly 
practical. But I assert that there should exist no an- 
tagonism between the two, that true idealism should 
always be expressed in a thoroughly practical way, 
that the idealistic life is not necessarily made up of 
dreams that can never be realised, but rather of visions 
of things that are to be. The world could never 
make any progress if it were not constantly receiving 
new ideals ; therefore, in the truest sense of the word, 
it is not the layers of brick or the hewers of wood 
who are the creators of the world's beautiful, artistic 
buildings, but the architect who first wrought out the 
structure in his own mind. Were it not for the inner 
vision the world would perish. An early English 
poet wrote: 



A REFINING INFLUENCE 257 

"My mind to me a kingdom is; 
Such present joys therein I find, 
That it exacts all other bliss 
That earth affords or grows by kind." 

Now, If the mind is devoid of beauty of thought, 
there can be no beauty of expression. If we are 
to enter into the enjoyment of our own minds, then 
the inner must necessarily be filled with something 
for us to enjoy. I have said this by way of preface 
for what follows. 

A person may be so busily engaged in his every-day 
work that he may not have very much time to give to 
anything outside of it; but if he can do his work 
more easily and better because of giving some little 
time to the improvement of his mind, and if he is 
to find satisfaction and joy in his own mind, then 
he must be willing to devote as much time as he can 
in order to obtain the best results. He should cul- 
tivate the love of music, and he should cultivate his 
singing voice preferably to some musical instrument. 
If he can cultivate both, so much the better. He should 
learn to discriminate between good and indifferent 
music, and never select the poorest when he can have 
the best. I do not mean to say that the person who 
is just taking up music should become absorbed in 
the classical or higher order of music, but there are 
many degrees, or, we might say, planes of music, 
where even the most simple music may be good or 
indifferent. Select, then, the best music of its kind, 
whether for the voice or instrument. Remember that 
music is the greatest power in the world to awaken 
the inner emotions, and not merely the elemental pas- 
sions of life. Try to feel its rhythm and melody 
within the self; then seek to give expression to it. 



258 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

in so far as you are able. Make the life musical, 
and the mind will become stored up with delightful 
memories of the music you have listened to. After 
music read the greatest poets. Next to the composer 
of music comes the composer of verse. In a lesser 
way he may be said to be putting the things of the 
spirit into tangible form. The writer can remember 
times in life, many years ago, when, feeling despond- 
ent or gloomy, he could take up one of the great poets 
and become so thoroughly absorbed in reading that 
after fifteen or twenty minutes he would find all the 
gloom and despondency dispelled. The reading of 
the poetry was, in fact, a mental treatment that made 
for a healthier and brighter outlook on life. The poet, 
too, like the composer, is very close to the soul of life 
and is able to interpret something of the joy and 
gladness, something of the faith and hope, that live 
eternally in the soul. In other words, it is the com- 
poser of music and the composer of verse that help 
to bring us in closest relation to the soul of healing. 
People cannot make a study of one or the other with- 
out its having a direct action upon their inner lives 
to call out more of sweetness and light, to act as a 
refining influence upon the external life. Thus we not 
only lay the foundation for a beautiful life in the 
present, but are storing up the riches that shall last 
when this present life is no more; for as we brought 
nothing in the way of material things into this world, 
so when we leave it, we take nothing with us save 
the love and wisdom we have acquired while here in 
this world. This constitutes our real capital of life, 
no matter where we are. 

There are some people who never like to be alone. 
They are constantly craving companionship or excite- 



A REFINING INFLUENCE 259 

ment of one kind or another. It makes them lonely 
and nervous to be left by themselves. This condition 
illustrates lack of culture ; they have failed to develop 
their own minds, consequently can feel no companion- 
ship with their inner thoughts and feelings, and with- 
out excitement or company they are at a loss to know 
what to do with themselves. Again, other people 
may so enjoy the companionship of their own thoughts 
and ideals that it becomes almost in the nature of a 
recreation to them to be left, for a season, to them- 
selves. Everyone should know how much his own 
happiness is dependent upon real communion with his 
inner self and how much his outer life requires of 
this inner self, in order to make that outer as perfect 
as the inner. The suprem^e object of life is to de- 
velop the whole man — soul, mind and body — to purify 
and refine the whole life. It is not a question of 
development in one direction or another, but an all- 
around development that affects the whole man. There 
is within us a higher consciousness than that con- 
sciousness which consists of the world and the things 
of the world. Through this cultivation we come at 
last to recognise that heaven is a condition of mind, 
that the kingdom of God lives in us, that we possess 
it and are possessed by it. Potentially, every human 
being has this kingdom within himself, but many are 
unaware of it. They are lacking in true consciousness 
concerning it. There are many steps leading up to its 
discovery. We may use many things as aids to help 
us in the way of attainment, to bring light to enlighten 
our way. 

Music and poetry can be made to unlock the gates 
of Heaven, so that the inner glory and radiance are 
mirrored by the mind, and the whole life is quickened 



26o THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

and renewed. Through the constant use of music 
and poetry, there come new visions and a new out- 
look upon all life. Everything in the outer is trans- 
lated into terms of beauty. We see, hear, and feel 
nature through her rhythm of melody and harmony. 
There comes, as it were, a new appreciation of nature ; 
so that while we see an infinity of diversity of 
forms and an infinite variety of beauty, yet we 
have the consciousness that all the variety and di- 
versity are necessary to one complete whole. That 
"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, whose 
body nature is and God the soul." It is in this way 
that life takes on new meaning and that the mind, 
instead of being filled with the strain and stress of 
living, becomes optimistic and buoyant. It is in real- 
ity a new birth wherein everything seems as though 
it were made new; and the individual who has found 
such a life, and knows that he is a part of it, will 
consciously ever after seek to keep his life in accord 
with all inner and outer life. If we desire to refine 
and make our lives harmonious as well as beautiful, 
we should be willing to take the one Wciy that will 
give us not only the surest and the most direct, but 
the best results. A worldly minded person might say 
that the following out of such a course would be fatal 
to what he calls success in life. But success is not 
measured half so much by what a man has in the 
way of possessions, as by what a man is in the way 
of development. Life cannot be measured by things 
that are temporary, by things which change and pass 
away. Life can only be measured by the things 
which endure. Material possessions are for the mo- 
ment, spiritual and mental possessions are for eter- 
nity. Worldly ambition too often stands in the way 



A REFINING INFLUENCE 261 

of true success. "For what shall it profit a man, 
if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own 
soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for 
his soul?" We may have worldly riches and yet, 
in passing from this world and entering into another, 
we may find ourselves in a state of real poverty, lack- 
ing everything necessary to real life and living. The 
real riches of life must be acquired some time and 
somewhere, so why defer the day? Why not see that 
the present time is the accepted time? Why not lay 
up treasure while it is to-day, and prepare the way 
for a still greater life, and a still greater happiness 
in the time to come? For the truly successful life 
is the one which by its own fulness of love and wis- 
dom is able to impart love and wisdom to others. 



CHAPTER XIX 

MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 

"Music the fiercest grief can charm, 
And fate's severest rage disarm: 
Music can soften pain to ease, 
And make despair and madness please; 
Our joys below it can improve, 
And antedate the bliss above. 
This the divine Cecilia found, 
And to her Maker's praise confin'd the sound. 
When the full organ joins the tuneful quire, 
Th' immortal pow'rs inchne their ear; 
Borne on the swelling notes our souls aspire, 
While solemn airs improve the sacred fire; 
And angels lean from Heaven to hear. 
Of Orpheus now no more let poets tell. 
To bright Cecilia greater pow'r is given; 
His numbers raised a shade from Hell, 
Hers lift the soul to Heav'n." — Pope. 

In any new departure from the prescribed or con- 
ventional order of things in life there are always those 
who seek to put obstacles in the way. They are the 
people who say, "Let well enough alone, our fathers 
and forefathers did what we are doing, and what was 
good enough for them is good enough for us." Such 
argument, for a time, carries more or less weight with 
that large body of people who never do any thinking 
for themselves. It is not to be expected that the heal- 
ing done through music and colour will meet with 
approbation or even approval from all sources. But 
if it is true that healing can be best accomplished 
through the use of music and colour, then in the end 
the truth shall surely prevail. 

One might easily enumerate the various objections 

262 



MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 263 

that are likely to arise from those in opposition to its 
use. The chief objection would be that while it might 
prove of some benefit to a nervous-minded person, 
yet it could never be used to heal real physical dis- 
eases. How is it possible that such abstract qualities 
could be made to affect a concrete physical body? 
Such people reason as though the body were some- 
thing separate from the soul of man. Why, the very 
repetition of a sad tone or tones will tend to lower 
the pulse and oppress all the vital functions, while a 
bright, cheerful tone will have exactly the opposite 
effect. Now if that is true, and it is something that 
is susceptible of demonstration, how can anyone sing 
without producing an effect upon the whole physical 
organism? I am certain that the physical well-being 
of the body can be more influenced by man's inner 
emotional nature than by any or all other causes; 
that the best music does more to awaken that inner 
nature than almost anything else in life; and that 
harmonies of sound and colour may be so used to 
act upon the emotional nature that through such action 
the whole body may be quickened and renewed. Every 
one knows how the emotions affect the circulation, 
either to quicken or to retard it. Harmonious emotion 
also tends to set up a rhythmic action of the breath, 
and this rhythm produces a still further rhythmic 
action of the whole body. It will be found, too, that 
the breath not only becomes rhythmic, but that there 
is a decided increase of the quantity of the air breathed 
in, and therefore the body receives more oxygen and 
other life-giving properties from the without. All 
people must be conscious, too, of the disturbing ef- 
fects produced on the body by the false and unreal 
emotions of anger and hate ; how both these emotions 



264 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

set up un-rhythmic and discordant movement through- 
out the whole organism. If King Saul was soothed 
and charmed by music so that his evil passions were 
overcome, surely music could be used for the over- 
coming of unreal conditions to-day just as much as 
in that far-away day. We all know, if we would only 
stop to think, how worry and anxiety leave their lines 
on the face, and how vice writes its tale of disease 
and death daily upon the countenances of men and 
women. The people who fret, scold, and grumble, 
not only breed moral pestilence, but eventually under- 
mine their own health. They poison themselves and 
the atmosphere in which they live. To harbour anger 
and hate against another not only poisons the mind, 
but the body also. Anger and hate produce more 
disease than all other known causes. Anything, then, 
which tends to overcome or eliminate anger and hate 
must be productive of great good, since it must act 
not only as a mental regenerative, but also as a health 
tonic to the body. 

All m.usical tones, whether made by the voice or by 
an instrument, produce not only emotional and mental 
changes within the life of the one making or listen- 
ing to them, but also structural changes of the body. 
Take a person who feels rhythm and loves music, and 
you will find such a person expressing a rhythm of 
movement through his whole physical organism. With 
the aid of music we can set up habits of correct phys- 
ical movement so that after a time it becomes, as it 
were, automatic; and these right habits, when once 
established, have a reflex influence both on the mind 
and the body. That is, if one consciously establishes 
a rhythm in walking or any other movement, after a 
time, even if one is mentally out of rhythm, the habit 



MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 2O5 

of rhythm will have become so established in the body 
that it continues automatically, and not only this, its 
reflex action on the mind will tend to call back again 
mental rhythm. There is more of real magic for hu- 
man good in beautiful tones produced either by the 
voice or a master player of some instrument, than in 
any belief in creeds or observance of forms. They 
serve to call out more of the religious element in man 
than any or all external religious ceremonies. They 
conceal within themselves a power capable of produc- 
ing the deepest emotions in the listener. While under 
the spell of beautiful music all the functions of the 
body are exhilarated and harmonised. We know, too, 
that the emotions, when dominated by the spirit of 
love, joy, and faith, constitute the greatest influence 
toward higher living; and this, of a necessity, must 
have its direct action upon the physical organism. Let 
me cite here an incident connected with the great 
Italian singer Farinelli: 'When Farinelli first visited 
the court of Philip V., King of Spain, where he be- 
came afterward so great a favourite, that monarch 
was labouring under a total dejection of spirits, which 
rendered him incapable of attending council, or trans- 
acting the affairs of state ; and had the still more sin- 
gular effect of making him refuse to be shaved. The 
Queen, who had in vain tried every common expedient 
that was likely to contribute to his recovery, deter- 
mined that an experiment should be made of the ef- 
fects of music upon the king, who was extremely 
sensible to its charms. Her majesty contrived that 
there should be a concert in a room adjoining the 
king's apartment, in which Farinelli, who had never 
as yet performed before the king, should sing one of 
his most captivating songs. Philip appeared at first 



266 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

surprised, then moved, and at the end of the second 
air, called for Farinelli into the royal apartment, 
loaded him with compliments and caresses, asked him 
how he could sufficiently reward such talent, and as- 
sured him that he could refuse him nothing. Fari- 
nelli, as previously instructed, only begged that his 
majesty would permit his attendants to shave and 
dress him, and that he would endeavour to appear in 
council as usual. From this moment the king's dis- 
ease abated; and the singer had, ere long, all the 
honour of effecting a complete cure." 

The case of King Philip is only one of many similar 
cases that have been recorded from time to time. 
Some might say that this illustration goes simply to 
show the power of singing to overcome mental dejec- 
tion; but this mental dejection, we are told, made it 
impossible for him to transact affairs of state, so that 
the result of his mental state was to interfere with his 
physical ability to work, showing that just as soon as 
his mind was right his physical organism responded 
as well. 

Every tone we make with the voice, whether it is a 
speaking or a singing tone, contains within itself a 
power for good or evil, because of the action it sets 
up in the life of the one making it, or its effect upon 
the lives of others. How often we feel, without 
stopping to think or reason why, how the voice of 
one person produces a discordant effect upon us, and 
how the voice of another brings peace and harmony. 
The tone quality of a voice depends entirely upon the 
emotion that causes it. If produced by the highest 
emotion then there will be found in it something of 
purity and beauty of tone. For the tone quality of 
the voice can never be made to lie in the same way that 



MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 267 

we may use words to tell an untruth. Every tone has 
its own particular tone quality, and the person who 
understands tone values can never be deceived by any- 
one else who may be saying one thing and feeling or 
thinking another. Each tone is filled with a definite 
meaning that appeals to a corresponding latent quality 
or tone in the soul of the listener. Yet if one is only 
listening to the words he may be all unconscious of 
the tone of the speaker, and thereby fail to get any 
understanding other than the mere words convey. 
The tone qualities of the voice which produce emo- 
tions in the lives of others can only result from the 
same emotions in the mind or the heart of the speaker. 
The one, therefore, who recognises tone values can of 
a certainty tell whether the speaker is sincere or only 
trying to convey in a superficial way a true impression. 
It makes not the slightest difference how one may try 
to hide or cover up that insincerity, each tone has its 
own tale to tell. The power to produce a soothing or 
a quieting effect through sympathetic tones cannot be 
done by those in whose minds there rankle the ele- 
ments of jealousy, anger or hate. As the faculties of 
man's mind develop through thought and feeling there 
comes also the fuller development and the strengthen- 
ing of the particular organ of the body that corre- 
sponds to each faculty; because, each organ of the 
body only symbolises a faculty of the mind. I assert, 
therefore, that all natural development of one's high- 
est emotional nature, and the use of all the varying 
faculties of mind, makes for physiological changes, 
and that such changes are recorded throughout the 
whole physical organism. If the same time and study 
had been given to the action of man's emotions and 
thoughts upon his physical organism that have been 



268 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

given to the study of morbid anatomy and pathology 
of the body, we should long ago have had a system 
of healing erected upon a safe and sure foundation. 
But the materialism that places cause in the physical, 
and that can never see beyond the mere senses, has 
prevented the professors of healing from seeing be- 
yond the merely physical organism, and the food and 
drink, and other material things that enter into that 
physical organism. The whole science of healing, 
then, as it has existed and does exist, is as far from 
the real truth as it is possible for it to be. 

When soul and mind are functioning as they should 
in mutual harmony with one another, we may rest as- 
sured that the body will become the faithful mirror of 
both, and will bear the outer record of the inner har- 
mony. Through the aid of music and colour those 
inner harmonies can be established. Let me refer once 
more to a little incident in regard to Farinelli to show 
how much variety of music is needed for the purpose 
of calling out the higher emotions. 

"When Farinelli was at Venice, he was honoured 
with the most marked attention from the Emperor 
Charles VL ; but of all the favours he received from 
the monarch, he used to say that he valued none more 
than an admonition which he received from him on his 
style of singing. His Imperial Majesty condescended 
to tell him one day, with great mildness and affability, 
that his singing was, indeed, supernatural, that he 
neither moved nor stood still like any other mortal; 
but 'these gigantic strides,' continued his Majesty, 
'these never-ending notes and passages, only surprise, 
and it is now time for you to please; you are too 
lavish of the gifts with which nature has endowed 
you; if you wish to reach the heart, you must take 



MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 269 

a more plain and simple road.' These few words 
brought about an entire change in Farinelli's manner 
of singing; from this time he mixed the pathetic with 
the spirited, the simple with the sublime, and by these 
means delighted as well as astonished every hearer.'* 
Very often it happens that the music which is 
well suited to one person is ill suited to another. 
There is no emotion that cannot be awakened through 
musical appeal of one kind or another. For music 
is adapted to every phase of human growth, from 
the elemental stage to the very highest phases of 
^spiritual development, and in not one of the arts 
can there be introduced that multiplicity of variety 
that music may be made to carry to the minds and 
hearts of its hearers. The effects attributed to music 
in the cure of diseases for several thousands of years, 
seem almost miraculous, but there are so many cases 
so well authenticated that it is impossible to question 
the truth of them. Martinus Capella assures us that 
fevers were removed by song; and that Esculapius 
cured deafness by the sound of the trumpet. Plu- 
tarch says that Thelates, the Cretan, delivered the La- 
cedaemonians from the pestilence by the sweetness 
of his lyre; and many others of the ancient writers 
speak of music as a remedy for almost every malady. 
Different kinds of instruments have been especially 
recommended, at times, for different forms of dis- 
eases. Let me cite a few cases, to show the marvel- 
lous effects of music in the healing of the sick. The 
Phrygian pipe is recommended by several of the an- 
cient fathers as an antidote to sciatica; and, indeed, 
according to some writers, every malady has, at some 
time or another, yielded to the power of music. Mod- 
ern writers also furnish numerous instances of the 



270 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

effect of music on diseases. In the "History of the 
Royal Academy of Sciences" at Paris, for 1707, a very 
remarkable case of this kind is related. "A musician, 
who was very proficient in his art and famous for his 
compositions, was seized with a fever which gradually 
increased ; and became at last accompanied with alarm- 
ing paroxysms. On the seventh day he fell into a very 
violent and almost uninterrupted delirium, accom- 
panied with shrieks, tears, horrors, and a perpetual 
want of sleep. On the third day of his delirium, one 
of those natural instincts which are commonly said to 
prompt animals in distress to seek for those herbs that 
are proper for their case, made him desirous of hear- 
ing a small concert in his chamber. His physician did 
not consent to the proposal without some reluctance. 
It was at last, however, agreed to, and the cantatas 
of M. Bernier were sung to him; no sooner had the 
soft melodious strains touched him than his counte- 
nance assumed an air of sweetness and serenity, his 
eyes became calm, his convulsions ceased entirely, he 
shed tears of joy, and was more affected with that 
particular music than ever he had been by any before 
his disorder, or any that he heard after his cure. He 
was free from the fever while the concert lasted; but 
when it was at an end, he relapsed into his former 
state. The use of a remedy whose success had been 
at once so happy and unexpected was continued; the 
fever and delirium were always suspended during the 
concert, and music became so necessary to the pa- 
tient, that, during the night, he made a relation of 
his own, who very often attended him, sing, and even 
dance to him. This relation being himself much af- 
fected, paid him such pieces of complaisance with re- 
luctance. One night, when he had no other person but 



MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 271 

his nurse with him, a woman who could only blunder 
out the harsh and inharmonious notes of some coun- 
try ballad, he was obliged to be contented with her 
music, and even found relief from it. A continuance 
of the music for ten days cured him entirely, without 
the assistance of any other remedy, except once tak- 
ing some blood from his ankle, which was the second 
time the operation had been performed on him during 
his disorder." To the power of music, however, his 
cure was attributed. 

A work in the early part of the last century on 
this subject cites a number of curious facts, which 
are adduced as proof that the most serious disorders, 
after having resisted every remedy, have at length 
yielded to the charms of music, and that the most 
acute pain has been mitigated by listening to pathetic 
melody. The author asserts, that in cases of hemor- 
rhage, the most astonishing effects have been observed. 

M. de Mairan, in the "History of the Royal Aca- 
demy of Sciences, France,'' speaking of the medicinal 
power of music, says that "it is from the mechanical 
involuntary connection between the organs of hearing 
and the consonances excited in the outward air, joined 
to the rapid communication of the vibrations of these 
organs to the whole nervous system, that we owe the 
cure of spasmodic disorders, and of fevers, attended 
with a delirium and convulsions." 

Dr. Bianchini says he has witnessed many instances 
in which music has been applied with great effect in 
cases of acute and chronic diseases. Dr. Leake says 
that music produces its salutary effects by exciting a 
peculiar sensation of the nerves of the ear, which com- 
municate with the brain and general nervous system. 
He says that its sovereign influence over the mind 



272 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

cannot be disputed; that it is balm to the wounded 
spirit, exalts the soul above low-thoughted care, and 
wraps it in elysium. 

Dr. Cox relates a case of the power of music on 
insanity, in which "great benefit was obtained in the 
cure of a soldier by the music of a fife; but the fife 
evidently produced its effect by breaking through the 
train of disordered ideas, and introducing new asso- 
ciations from the recollection of past scenes in which 
he was warmly interested." 

If such cures as I have described in the foregoing 
incidents have been obtained from music, then it be- 
hooves us to think why still greater cures may not be 
obtained when the use of music with colour added to 
it becomes a thoroughly scientific method of healing. 
Music has been truly described as the mother of sym- 
pathy, and the handmaid of religion, but it will never 
exercise its full effect, as the Emperor Charles VI. 
said to Farinelli: "Unless it aims not merely to charm 
the ear, but to touch the heart," and when it does this, 
it is ready to go a step farther and heal the mind of 
grief and sorrow, and the body of disease and pain. 
And this is the high and holy ofiice that music will 
eventually fill. The composer is yet to come who shall 
devote his life solely to the production of music which 
shall free mankind not only from the burden of sins, 
but from physical infirmities as well. Said Suder- 
mann: "The greatest and highest thing one possesses 
in this world is his life melody. A certain strain that 
ever vibrates, that his soul forever sings, waking or 
sleeping, loudly or softly, internally or externally. 
Others may say: 'His temperament or his character 
is so and so.' He only smiles, for he knows his 
melody, and he knows it alone." Said Lanier: 



MUSICAL THERAPEUTICS 273 

"Music means harmony, harmony means love, love 
means God." If we can get closer to God through liv- 
ing melody and harmony in a thoroughly rhythmic 
way, then surely God must become to us the real 
Source of health and power. There is a bread of 
life which comes to us from the soul of music that is 
more necessary to our well-being than physical bread. 
Said the Master: '*Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth 
of God." And he also said: "God is love." And love 
is both the fundamental and the dominant note of 
being. He who is inspired by the Spirit of love will 
not only be able to receive his melody from the Soul 
of Life, but will also be able to impart of his divine 
melody and harmony to others. The emotion of love 
sets up a rhythmic vibration in the soul and moves 
out in never-ending rhythmic waves to influence and 
inspire the souls of others. Love is without beginning 
or ending, and when one is able to consciously draw 
from the Source of Love and then express that love 
through the singing or the speaking voice, the inner 
vibration continues ever after to make itself felt. 

"He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man, and bird, and beast. 

"He prayeth best, who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 

The loving vibrations of a Jesus or a Buddha as ex- 
pressed through their lives while they lived on earth 
are without doubt the greatest inheritance that the 
world is in possession of to-day. Because in all the 
years that have elapsed since they lived in this world, 



274 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

the loving vibration set up by them has gone forth 
from them and has united itself with the love in the 
hearts and minds of those people who have become 
attuned, as it were, to the love that lived in the Jesus 
and the Buddha, a love that lives in a far greater way 
in the world of the present than it has ever done in 
the past, a love that is being expressed in thought, in 
word, and in deed by all those who believe in them. 

Music filled with the love spirit has greater power to 
stir man's highest emotions than anything else in life. 
Such music can colour and give power to the life of 
the one who becomes attuned to it, and this love and 
power can be transmitted as was the love and power 
of the Jesus and the Buddha to the lives of others, and 
the melody flowing from it can be produced, not only 
through the singing voice, but the speaking voice as 
well ; so that the whole life may come to find full and 
complete expression through love and beauty in tone 
and colour, and thus man may become a true revela- 
tion of God on earth. 



CHAPTER XX 

ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 

"And the slender sound 
As from a distance beyond distance grew 
Coming upon me — O never harp nor horn, 
Nor aught we blow with breath, or touch with hand, 
Was like that music as it came; and then 
Stream'd thro' my cell a cold and silver beam, 
And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail, 
Rose-red with beatings in it, as if alive. 
Till all the white walls of my cell were dyed 
With rosy colours leaping on the wall ; 
And then the music faded, and the Grail 
Past, and the beam decay'd, and from the walls 
The rosy quivering died into night." — Tennyson. 

"A truth, which through our being then doth melt 
And purifies from self : it is a tone. 
The soul and source of music, which makes known 
Eternal harmony, and sheds a charm, 
Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone, 
Binding all things with beauty; — 'twould disarm 
The spectre Death, had he substantial power to harm.'* 

— Byron. 

While I am optimistic in my belief that music and 
colour will eventually become the greatest agents for 
the healing of the sick and the sorrowing, yet I in no 
way underestimate the difficulties to be overcome be- 
fore such a desired end can be fully realised. There 
are so many things to be taken into consideration, so 
much that at first cannot be otherwise than experi- 
mental that time must necessarily elapse before any 
system can be perfected. The music and colour used 
to heal one man miight prove, not only of no benefit 
to another, but irritating, and, possibly, harmful, in 

275 



2^(> THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

its effects. The question of temperament naturally 
would play an important part in all healing. What 
might prove one man's food might prove another 
man's poison. People are in different stages or de- 
grees of development. Some people have outgrown, 
and have no longer any use for, the things that other 
people may still enjoy. In healing then, the needs of 
the individual would have to be thoroughly studied, 
and the effects of music and colour upon each patient 
carefully noted. It is very doubtful whether music 
and colour could be used, at first, to heal numbers of 
people at the same time, although later this might be 
accomplished, providing that the people were largely 
animated by the same desires and hopes so that there 
might be that unison necessary to the establishing of 
a receptive condition of mind. 

I have often been impressed when listening to the 
music of a great church organ with a sense of peace 
and serenity of mind, and a feeling that the cares and 
anxieties of life, for the time being, were all removed 
from me, and really formed no part of my life. And 
sometimes, looking at the faces of those about me, 
I have been impressed by the thought that my own 
condition of mind was being also experienced by many 
others in the congregation. The musical church ser- 
vice, if of a good or high order, has always given me 
a greater spiritual uplift than any or all of the other 
services combined. I believe, however, that the best 
course to follow to demonstrate the healing value of 
music and colour, will first of all consist in individual 
treatment. If such treatment can once demonstrate 
its full value in a small way, then later it is bound to 
be taken up in the larger way. I think it most cer- 
tainly might be made a very decided aid in the large 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 277 

institutions for the sick without going into the matter 
in a definite, scientific way. In such cases, however, 
it would be necessary to use good judgment in the 
selection of the music to be played, music that would 
exhilarate without exciting, music with brightness and 
cheerfulness, and music that would quiet and soothe. 
It would be necessary to avoid music of an exciting 
nature, or any kind that was morbid or sad. 

I believe that one of the greatest mistakes being 
perpetuated in the hospital life of to-day is the use 
of white. White may be of the greatest value com- 
bined with colour, but when the eye catches nothing 
but white in every direction, the tendency of white is 
toward excitement, and not restfulness, because the 
white wall reflects back at least 70% of light. I 
know that the underlying thought in the use of white 
is that of cleanliness, and I am thoroughly convinced 
that the people who favour its use think that they are 
doing the wisest and best thing. A habit once es- 
tablished is difficult to get away from, whether it con- 
cern the lay mind, the semi-scientific, or the scientific. 
There is an underlying desire for permanency in 
everything that man does, and he hates to be pushed 
out of the beaten track. It would not be such a diffi- 
cult matter for hospitals and other places where the 
sick are treated to do a little experimentation in the 
use of colours. Take two or more wards in a hospi- 
tal, using white in one, and green or light greys in 
the others. In connection with the grey, some little 
colour might be used to brighten it up. If possible, 
have the same class of patients in all three wards, and 
then watch and see the different effects produced upon 
the patients; I am sure that the end of it would show 
that all white does not make as much for the health 



278 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

of the patients as is usually supposed. The eye needs 
colour in order to satisfy the mind, and the mind that 
is filled with monotony caused by its surroundings can- 
not make as satisfactory progress toward convales- 
cence as the mind attuned, at least in a degree, to its 
outer environment. Many times have I heard people 
say that the white glare in the ward had made them 
almost distracted ; for the awful feeling of monotony, 
day after day, made the hours seem days and the days 
seem weeks. Such a mental condition cannot conduce 
to rapid recovery. The white, too, of the ward is 
usually intensified by the number and size of the win- 
dows for the admission of light. If the room were a 
dark one, then there would be some real justification 
for the use of white; but surely with the great use of 
light there should be something other than a white 
surface to absorb more of the light. Our hospitals 
and sanitariums have made very decided progress in 
many ways. ^ Why not make a careful investigation 
as to the introduction of some colour to satisfy the 
eye, and discover whether colour may not, even in 
a small way, prove beneficial in the healing of the 
sick? I do not underestimate the work of all kinds 
that has to be done in large hospitals, but sometimes 
even that which seems to be extra work may help 
make for an improved mental and physical condition, 
and instead of adding to, in reality lessen the work. 
If a state of restlessness in a patient or patients could 
be replaced by restfulness, it would not only act for 
the benefit of the patients but for the nurses as well. 
Supposing, for instance, that curtains or draperies 
were used during the lightest hours of the day and 
were removed later, it would take time to do this, 
but might there not be a compensating gain in other 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 279 

ways? I can well understand that it would not be 
wise to keep such curtains and draperies up perma- 
nently, because of their becoming infected with bac- 
teria. That, I suppose, would be the chief medical 
objection to their use; but such an objection could be 
very easily overcome by occasionally subjecting them 
to heat or some other means that would destroy the 
bacteria. These are days of innovation and change. 
Too often the changes are not attended by the hoped- 
for results; nevertheless, that is no real reason why 
humanity should not try to overcome bad conditions 
with good ones, and go on from good to better, until 
the very best shall be obtained. Harmonious outer 
environment is certainly necessary for the well-being 
of those who are strong and whole, how much more 
necessary is it to those who are weak, to those ex- 
periencing pain and sorrow? Notwithstanding all the 
progress that has been made in the healing of the 
sick, I believe that not one-half the attention is given 
that should be given to the production of harmonious 
environment for the sick and diseased either in public 
or private institutions, or even in the homes of people. 
Sometimes a great deal of care is given to the question 
of temperature and food, without the slightest atten- 
tion being paid to the things that attract the attention 
of the eye of the patient. In the healing of the sick 
it will soon be acknowledged the world over that the 
mind is the greatest factor, and that, if it can be kept 
in a state of rest and hopeful expectation, much has 
been accomplished toward ultimate recovery. I do not 
wish the reader to assume that in what I have writ- 
ten I wish to be either fault-finding or antagonistic 
toward those in authority in our institutions of healing; 
my intention is rather to suggest ways and means that 



28o THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

should prove beneficial alike to the patients and those 
in charge of them. 

Criticism that is solely antagonistic or destructive 
will never be productive of good. But one should 
never refrain from the criticism that points out the 
possibilities of new ways and methods of doing things 
better than they have been done. In the suggestion 
I have previously made, concerning coloured curtains 
or draperies, I should like to modify my statement by 
saying that anything that would give the desired 
colour necessary to the restfulness of the eyes would 
probably prove as effective and might not have to 
meet with the same objections ; but that more colour is 
needed in our institutions for the treatment of the 
sick is beyond all question, and I venture to say that 
the hospital that resorts to both music and colour as 
an aid in the treatment of the sick, will be more than 
repaid by the results. I am fully aware that in in- 
stitutions generally the heads are loth to make any 
radical change and look with disfavour upon inno- 
vations that will in any way tend to disrupt the old 
order of things. The world is demanding new and 
better conditions of life, and our hospitals should seek 
to keep abreast of the times. Many of the greatest 
medical authorities realise that drug medication has 
had its day ; that the healing of the sick will have to be 
accomplished by other ways and means. The psychol- 
ogy of the cause and cure of disease has been too much 
overlooked, and greater attention will have to be paid 
to it from this on. Surely there must be a thoroughly 
scientific method both for the prevention and the over- 
coming of disease, and when such a method is once 
fully established, then the body of people who are the 
professors or representatives of that system need have 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 281 

no fear of being displaced by any other system of prac- 
tice carried on by outsiders. For their own preserva- 
tion, the medical doctors should not decry or set aside 
any new effort looking toward a greater advancement 
for the healing of the sick. As it is at present, the 
exponents of the art of healing are divided into many 
camps. Each possessing something that is good, but 
all lacking any full or complete system or method of 
healing. Innovations and changes must come, other- 
wise the present schools must go, because they do not 
by any means meet the full requirements of the age. 
The most successful healers, medical or otherwise, 
will be those who are most alert in their endeavours 
to seek out new and better ways, who are not content 
with simply accepting the old order of things, but 
will also ask that every new way or method shall be 
tested and proved, so that whatever is false or untrue 
may be discarded, and only the good remain. Many 
things may have a partial good that should not be 
cast aside, because they are more or less incomplete. 
The system of healing that is yet to come will not 
cast aside everything that has proven itself to be good 
in the past ; it will only seek to add new good in every 
possible way, so that eventually the science of healing 
may be as sure and certain in its results as the other 
sciences of our day. 

I shall not, attempt, in this book, to give any list 
either of vocal or instrumental music to be used for 
the healing of mind or body. In the chapter on colour 
healing 1 pointed out something of the analogy be- 
tween sound and colour, and I would say here that 
analogy between music and colour would be safer to 
follow than any decided contrast between the two; 
although, in certain cases, I can well understand how 



282 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

environment contrasting with musical sounds might 
prove of benefit. That, however, would have to be 
determined through experiment. But where the outer 
environment can be made to fully harmonise with the 
music, I think, in a great majority of cases, such con- 
ditions would prove the more successful. I believe 
that in a time to come, far more attention will be 
given to the prevention of disease than is paid to it 
at present. It is an old saying that an ounce of pre- 
vention is worth a pound of cure, it is also a very wise 
saying, but not one to which people in general pay 
much attention. Consequently, the prevention of dis- 
ease does not occupy the attention of the public mind 
to the degree it should. 

When anyone becomes irritable and easily disturbed 
mentally, it should be recognised that this shows some 
loss of vital energy, that something is wrong which 
should be made right; by this knowledge weeks or 
even months of sickness might be saved. Nineteen 
times out of twenty the danger flags that tell of 
trouble ahead are up, but the individual pays little, if 
any, attention, and in the end he must pay the price 
of his heedlessness in sickness and pain. Sometimes, 
when tired and worn out in mind and body, a person, 
while not denying himself anything that his physical 
appetite calls for, will deny himself the pleasure of 
listening to good music for an hour or two, or of 
getting away to the park, or the woods, for entire 
change of thought, because of the time and the ex- 
pense involved in doing it; frequently later he has to 
pay the medical doctor many times the price of what 
might have prevented the sickness in the first place. 
We are all so constituted that we need a frequent 
change of thought and a certain amount of relaxa- 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 283 

tion for health of mind and body, and if we are 
deprived of these, we suffer in consequence. But peo- 
ple are constantly establishing habits which, though 
they may seem to be good habits, often produce a 
fixed way of doing or living which gets them into ruts 
and eventually takes from them the real joy of living. 
We should keep our minds and bodies as elastic as 
possible, and this can never be done through a rigid 
way of thinking and acting. People should remember 
that stagnation means death, that the real goal set be- 
fore us is that of constant progress, a continual in- 
flux of new ideas and adaptation to them, as well as 
a continual adjustment and readjustment to our en- 
vironment. Gladstone was an embodiment of this, 
and through constant effort toward new thoughts and 
ideas and their outer application, he was able not only 
to do great work, but also to retain health and strength 
of mind and body to an advanced age. The man who 
is able to introduce something new into his life each 
day, something of a bright uplifting nature, is not 
only using a preventive of disease, but is increasing 
his years on earth. 

The very worst thing in life that can happen to a 
man is to get into ruts or fixed ways of living, for in 
the doing of this he ceases to be his own master and 
becomes the slave of his own habits. Such a man is 
neither an inspiration to himself nor to anyone else. 
No matter how much work he may be accomplishing, 
he has little more of mind or soul than an automatic 
machine; and no matter how much of this world's 
goods he may accumulate, he will never be able to 
enter into the real enjoyment of them, and he fre- 
quently stands in the way of others who might enjoy 
life were it not for the undue pressure he brings to 



284 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

bear upon them. The ounce of prevention is much 
better than the pound of cure, but the ounce of pre- 
vention must be used, if we are going to profit by it. 
The prevention of a morbid or a despondent mind is 
a much easier thing than its cure. The prevention of 
pain and disease of body will usually not take half 
the time that the cure takes. By renewing the mind 
and filling it with the real joy of life, with rhythm 
and melody, harmony and beauty, one may go on doing 
one's work, possibly increasing it day by day, and 
yet not wear out; because it is not work that wears 
us out, but the wrong way in which we do it. When 
we can put a joy into our work, the hours speed by 
rapidly, but when we work in a mechanical way, we 
watch the hours and the day is long. Will humanity 
never learn that there is a God-given way of doing 
everything, and practise that way ? or must it go on in- 
definitely doing everything in the hardest possible 
manner? At present, civilised humanity lives either 
in the past or in the future, and gets little out of the 
present. Few people have made the discovery that 
the present offers to one all that one is capable of 
entering into and enjoying; and when once under- 
stood, one has really entered into the eternity of true 
living. The only thing that really concerns us is 
to know how to live to-day, and the living of to-day 
in the best way we know how, will aid us when 
the morrow comes to a still better way of living. 
Life as we live it now is too often filled with unreali- 
ties, negative thoughts, and negative actions. What 
we need is to be alive in every part and to live life as 
the Almighty intended His children to live — in a free, 
joyous, happy way. Better be a beggar and be able 
to enter into the joys of nature, to feel attuned, as 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 285 

it were, to the world in which one lives, to enjoy the 
blueness of the sky, the green of the earth, and the 
colour of the flowers, the beauty of the trees, to enter 
into and feel the heart-throbs of nature than be the 
prince or the millionnaire, who has all the world can 
give and yet is not able to enjoy that which he has. 
Life is not a state for the mere accumulation of ma- 
terial riches, but a state of consciousness, and anyone 
who is filled with the pure joy of life, and is trying 
to impart it to the lives of others, is in possession 
of the real riches, and to him life is worth living. 
Humanity needs a tuning up to a higher key than that 
to which it is living. What is the use of living in 
the slums, surrounded by everything of a degrading 
nature, when one may live on the mountain tops ? We 
can best fit ourselves for true living by bringing every 
refining influence to bear upon our lives: music, 
poetry, painting, architecture, the best of drama, the 
literature of history, travel, romance, etc. ; in demand- 
ing the very best, we consequently get it. Through 
following such a course, the whole inner life is awak- 
ened and one begins to live. There is too much of 
the just existing to no particular end or purpose. It 
is better to make mistakes than to drift purposeless 
through life, for people often profit by their mistakes, 
but there is no profit in drifting. Life was intended 
to be lived every inch of the way from the lowest 
elemental savage to the fully developed saint. One 
should never be satisfied to go through life eating, 
drinking, sleeping and being clothed. Such a life is 
profitless, being filled with no endeavour to be or to do, 
to become all that one wants to become, to do in the 
best possible way all that one desires to do. Fill the 
mind with creative desire, desire that has purpose and 



286 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

object in it, and then go confidently ahead and live 
the desires of heart and mind. The beauty of music 
and colour may be made to fill the mind and the heart 
with high, true, pure desire. Why not use it to over- 
come the old habits, the old desires, the old obstacles 
that stand in the way of real accomplishment? We 
can overcome when we will to overcome. In the past 
we have been satisfied to say that things are well 
enough, that we have no desire to improve upon them ; 
let us see that nothing is ever well enough, that new 
departures and new and better ways should constantly 
be entering into life, that when we have achieved one 
end, we have only fitted ourselves for still greater 
achievement. It is always through doing that we 
grow, and when the heart and mind are filled with a 
sense of the beautiful, then everything is going to be 
done in one's outer work in the most beautiful way. 
Life can bring to us whatever we will to have it bring ; 
and it is the one who is rhythmic, melodious, and 
harmonious in action who will reap the strength, the 
beauty, and the perfection of life. 

In the study of life we find a law of contradiction. 
In logic, when the absolute truth of any theory is 
ascertained, then anything which in any way contra- 
dicts that truth is held to be false or untrue. In our 
every-day life we lose sight of logic and, consequently, 
go on believing many things to be true and believing 
their contradictories to be true also. In our every-day 
life, hate seems to be as true as love; doubt as real 
as faith; despair as real as hope; disease as real as 
health; sorrow as real as joy; death as real as life; 
and we might go on indefinitely enumerating these 
contradictions of life, love, and truth. Mankind is 
not 3^et able to see all this in its true light; if love. 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 287 

faith, and hope, etc., constitute Hving the realities of 
life, then whatever contradicts them must of necessity 
be false and untrue. To a degree, people see this, but 
only in the most limited way. No one, unless he were 
very ignorant, would affirm the reality of darkness; 
he might say that darkness had an existence, but its 
existence was wholly dependent on the absence of 
light, and at any minute by the turning on of the light, 
the darkness w^ould vanish. Neither would anyone 
claim that ignorance was something in and of itself, 
but would tell you that with the coming of knowledge 
the ignorance would be dispelled; that ignorance sim- 
ply indicated a lack, and with the supply of that lack, 
ignorance w^ould cease to exist. That which is true 
concerning one contradictory is, from first to last, 
true of all contradictories. The introduction of truth 
into the mind eventually dispels everything that con- 
tradicts it. One of the most important things to which 
I would call attention is that man's life on this earth, 
from first to last, is a process of overcoming. A New 
Testament writer says: "The last enemy that shall be 
destroyed is death." There is also a promise made 
in the book of Revelation: "He that overcometh shall 
inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall 
be my son." We overcome darkness with light; we 
overcome ignorance with knowledge; we overcome 
hate with love; and so on; all the way through life 
we encounter unreal states of consciousness in order 
to replace them with real ones. 

Now, music was given to us to help us overcome 
all the unrealities of life in the easiest and best way. 
Wherever true rhythm is lacking, music supplies it; 
wherever melody is lacking in the life, music brings 
it; where discord exists, harmony overcomes it. The 



288 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

sick, the diseased, and the sorrowing are all out of 
tune; their conditions are as unreal as any of the 
contradictories of life that we have just enumerated. 
All such conditions, whether of mind or of body, have 
an existence but have no reality. Why should the 
wild animal creation be almost entirely free from dis- 
ease while with man diseases go on multiplying? The 
superior knowledge possessed by man should do more 
for him than the very limited intelligence or instinct 
of the animals, and yet we find quite the reverse of 
this is true. The Founder of Christianity once said: 
*Tf thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full 
of light." The eye has not yet become single and 
mankind is living a double life. Part of his life is 
that of a god and the other phase is that of a devil. 
At one moment he acts one part, and at another he 
may be acting the other part. The god-like man is 
positive in his thought, harmonious in his actions ; he 
is a creative man, always doing, always accomplish- 
ing, ever pushing forward toward the light; inspired 
from within by the universal Spirit ; but when he loses 
this consciousness he reverts to what he was in the 
past, and for the time being comes under the control 
of all the old passions of his former elemental life. 
We say he loses his temper, but the condition is a re- 
versal to a temper that controlled him possibly in a 
distant past; all the elemental activities of his animal 
nature come into the ascendant, and man in this con- 
dition is a devil incarnate. Instead of being creative, 
he is destructive; instead of being courageous, he is 
fearful; instead of living the positive life, he is liv- 
ing a life that is made up of negatives. This is the 
life that has to be so fully overcome that it will be 
impossible for the man ever to revert to it, or be con- 



ALIVE TO COLOUR AND MUSIC 289 

trolled by it again; this is the Hfe that music and 
colour in harmony of beauty as the light bearers of 
truth are to overcome. We give reality to all the old 
consciousness, but the truth is not in it. The old, the 
partial, the incomplete must be superseded by a con- 
sciousness of the divine that makes for perfect self- 
control. When the full consciousness comes, "then 
that which is in part shall be done away." Man is the 
son of God, having dominion and power over, not 
only his own life, but all things. He has not yet 
reached in his consciousness the fulfilment of this, 
but he has, in some cases, felt the prophecy of it 
and in a confident, expectant way is looking forward 
to the time when he shall realise the full measure 
of true manhood, when he shall have passed from 
death unto life to "the glorious liberty of a son of 
God." 

Rhythm, melody, harmony, and beauty combining 
in the life will make it God-like, will free it from sin, 
pain, and disease, will bring to life the joy that shall 
dispel the sorrow, the light that shall overcome the 
darkness, the love that shall overcome the hate. 

"Then, through the silence overhead, 
An angel with a trumpet said, 

'Forevermore, forevermore, 
The reign of violence is o'er !' 
And like an instrument that flings 
Its music on another's strings, 
The trumpet of the angel cast 
Upon the heavenly lyre its blast. 
And on from sphere to sphere the word 
" Reechoed down the burning chords, — 

'Forevermore, forevermore, 
The reign of violence is o'er/ " 



290 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

This will regenerate and beautify not only man's 
inner life, but also his outer world; for as man 
grows into a knowledge of love and wisdom, as 
he realises all the rhythm and colour of life, he will 
beautify his outer world so that the desert shall be 
made to blossom as the rose. The time is near at 
hand when all this shall come to pass. All lovers of 
music and of colour can hasten the coming of the new 
time by doing everything within their power to inter- 
est and impress others with this vital necessity for 
music, with the vital necessity for beauty, until at 
last the whole earth shall sing its new song, and life 
shall have gained its triumphant victory over death 
and the grave ; then the ears and the soul of man will 
have become attuned to the celestial and eternal music 
of the spheres; then there shall be no more night, 
neither shall there be any more sorrow, for "God shall 
wipe away all tears," and to His Name shall be at- 
tributed all honour and glory forever and ever. 



CHAPTER XXI 

EYE HATH NOT SEEN 

"From harmony, from heavenly harmony, 
This universal frame began: 
When nature underneath a heap 
Of jarring atoms lay, 
And could not heave her head. 
The tuneful voice was heard from high, 
'Arise, ye more than dead !' 
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, 
In order to their^ stations leap. 
And Music's power obey. 
From harmony, from heavenly harmony, 
This universal frame began : 
From harmony to harmony 
Through all the compass of the notes it ran. 
The diapason closing full in Man." — Dryden. 

*T held it truth, with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones. 
That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." 

— Tennyson. 

Man, In a progressive state of growth, finds that 
he has constantly to let go of old things in order to 
lay hold of new. The old may have served for step- 
ping-stones to reach higher things, but if he is to be 
in a constant state of progression, he must, In the 
nature of things, be engaged day by day in leaving 
behind him the stepping-stones which have served 
their end. Only in this way may he become truly re- 
lated to life. Things are only good in their right 
place, time, and way. Real happiness comes always as 
the result of right adjustment between man's inner 
life and his outer environment, and each person makes 

291 



292 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

such adjustment according to his degree of develop- 
ment. 

It is not to be expected of anyone that he shall live 
beyond what he knows or can comprehend. A man 
on a purely physical plane of being may be, in a way, 
living more truly the knowledge he possesses than 
another who has developed far beyond him. To 
whom but a little has come but a little is required. 
Greater knowledge requires greater achievement. We 
are all held accountable by our ideals; that is, our 
highest ideals, when there is failure to live them, sit 
in judgment upon us. In fact, they constitute the one 
and greatest judge in life. We can often be at per- 
fect peace in our own minds when others judge or 
condemn us; but no one can ever be at peace when 
he feels that he is violating his highest ideals. Right 
judgment, then, according to one's ideals, is the one 
thing necessary in life ; but as we proceed in life with 
such adjustments, our ideals are ever enlarging, and 
the adjustment of to-day is not going to prove suffi- 
cient for the morrow. 

There is a process of daily dying in order that we 
may daily enter into a new and larger life. Things 
useful only at one time in life, if still held to, would 
retard man rather than help him in his upward way. 
That which may be considered a virtue in the savage 
is not necessarily so in the highly civilised man. Char- 
acter, goodness, and virtue will all cease to be good 
when they cease to be progressive. One height at- 
tained in life should only disclose new and greater 
heights to be attained. There is no ultimate. Eternal 
progress that leads man ever upward and onward is 
the order of life. The people who have reached a 
state of contentment with what they may have accom- 



EYE HATH NOT SEEN 293 

plished in life, have with it reached a state of stagna- 
tion where growth and development have ceased. 
There are always better ways of doing everything, and 
we enter into the new and larger life only through 
the constant effort we are putting forth to do every- 
thing in a better way than we have done in the past. 
The old has served its purpose, push forward to the 
new. Leave the shadows behind and press forward 
to the greater realities that lie before. Make life 
what it should be: joyous in its melody, perfect in its 
rhythm, and thoroughly adjusted in its harmony. 

Each plane of being has its own music that can best 
be understood and assimilated by those living on that 
plane. One must become thoroughly attuned to the 
music of one's own development, before he will be 
able to enter into the real enjoyment of music of a 
higher order; but there should be the tendency or de- 
sire that continually makes for whatever is best in 
music. Music that, at one time, may have cheered or 
brightened the life of man, comes to a place where 
it has fulfilled its purpose. It may have been perhaps 
only of the most elemental kind, but having served its 
end, such music is no longer necessary to his life. For 
there comes to him the appreciation of a higher music 
and there can never be any retrograde movement or 
the giving up of this higher order for a return to the 
lower, without loss to the one taking such a course. 

The question of adjustment enters into the listen- 
ing to music. If the mind of the listener is in a high 
state of activity, he can,,never get the best from music, 
because music has more of emotion in it than of men- 
tality. One must listen with the heart far more than 
with the mind. The mind may become engrossed 
with the form given to music, but after all is said. 



294 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

heart must speak to heart, and it is only in this rela- 
tion that we may realise fully or truly appreciate 
the value and beauty of music. There is a state of 
mind that is to be regarded as neither mental concen- 
tration nor spiritual meditation, but which comes, as 
it were, between the two — we might call it contem- 
plation — a state wherein the mind and body are both 
relaxed and one feels rather than thinks. It is in this 
condition that the greatest good is to be derived from 
music, whether it be vocal or instrumental. 

In playing or singing, the performer should be using 
heart and mind. He may be said to be in a concen- 
trated, positive condition, and thoroughly absorbed in 
what he is doing; while the listener must ever seek to 
be passive in order to benefit by the music. We might 
call it a state of passive receptivity. It is only in this 
way that he can have any real appreciation of the 
music to which he is listening. 

Often in reading musical criticisms one wonders at 
the diversity of thought expressed by the different 
critics, some arguing for and some against, and fre- 
quently one is inclined to question the competency of 
the critics to pass judgment on the composition or its 
rendering. Musical critics who are possessed of a 
thorough technical knowledge of music often allow 
their minds to become so active in listening to music 
that they are unable to render a truly musical criti- 
cism, because they have paid so much attention to the 
form that they have missed the spirit of the music. 
Beauty of form is necessary, but it is by no means the 
greatest part of the music. I must emphasise right 
here that it is only by becoming passively contempla- 
tive that the listener becomes truly receptive and enters 
into the soul of the music. 



EYE HATH NOT SEEN 295 

"To every spirit, as it is more pure, 
And hath in it the more of heavenly light. 
To it the fairer body doth procure 
To habit in, and it more fairly dight, 
With cheerful grace and amiable sight. 
For of the soul, the body form doth take, 
For soul is form and doth the body make." 

Too often unjust criticism comes through the fail- 
ure of the critic to make harmonious adjustment. The 
time is not so far past when the majority of musical 
critics declared that Wagner's music consisted solely 
of a blare of trumpets, the beating of drums, and the 
clanging of brass. Later, when they were able to 
understand something of the underlying motive in 
Wagner's work, they learned to reconstruct their 
criticisms. Too often we will find that the failure to 
recognise good comes through lack of adjustment. 
Let me give a little illustration out of my own life: 
Some years ago, I was in the city of Montreal. The 
day was hot and the streets were dusty. The work 
and the traffic produced what seemed to me all kinds 
of discordant noises which served, in turn, to make 
me feel very much out of sorts with myself, with 
everything, and everybody. In this frame of mind I 
took a carriage to Mount Royal, and, when I got 
there, I went out to the farthest end of the little park 
that overlooks the city, and sat down on a seat. I had 
been there but a very short time when I felt a sooth- 
ing influence, and a little later became conscious that 
all the discordant sounds of the city had united in 
such a way as to bring out harmony similar to what 
one may feel from the wind moving the branches and 
the leaves of trees, or from water running over pebbly 
courses. Now there is no question that all this har- 
mony came from what people would call discordant 



296 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

noises, and the whole question was really one of re- 
lationship or adjustment. I was not adjusted mentally 
to the noises of the city, so could not detect their 
melody or harmony; but with the new adjustment 
there came something that I had been unable to get 
before. I might illustrate this in two different ways: 
a person may be in a very small room listening to a 
great piano or some other instrument, and, because of 
his nearness to the music, fail to get anything satis- 
factory from it. Perhaps, more than this, he may be- 
come visibly disturbed, and the music, instead of mak- 
ing for a harmonious condition of mind would make 
for a discordant one, while in a much larger room or a 
hall the same instrument would have given him only 
pleasure. 

Again, a person sitting very close to a hot fire, in- 
stead of enjoying the warmth, the colour, and the 
glow of the fire, might feel only the greatest discom- 
fort ; while another sitting at some distance might de- 
rive the greatest enjoyment from the warmth that it 
conveyed, from the flame and the glow. So we shall 
find all the way through life that the question of ad- 
justment is one of the greatest importance. 

Harmony in life is exactly the same as harmony in 
music. It is a mental effort to establish true outer re- 
lation for inner rhythm and melody. Harmony is 
the outer setting for the inner feeling. The more 
beautiful that setting can be, the more it will be able 
to represent the inner music of life. Harmony in the 
outer relation of life is indicative of true adjustment 
of the inner rhythm of life. There are many people 
in the world who do know something of the melody 
of life, but who are unable to express that melody 
through harmony; so that they neither understand 



EYE HATH NOT SEEN 297 

others nor do others understand them, and without 
understanding there can be no true adjustment to en- 
vironment. It is not enough to have inner feehng, 
even when combined with beautiful ideals. The feel- 
ing and the ideals both exist in order to become fully 
expressed. Harmony, therefore, is necessary to all 
true expression. It constitutes the outer evidence of 
the inner life. Harmony may be called the science of 
life, because science is an outer or practical demon- 
stration of some inner truth. God gives us the rhythm 
and the melody of life, in order that we may use it 
and express in our outer world the divine ideals which 
we receive from the Fountain Head of Life. With 
our minds and our bodies we are working out all that 
is written within. There is an inner book of life that 
each person must learn to interpret and then give it 
form through spoken or written words, through voice 
or instrument, through brush or chisel, in a great va- 
riety of ways; for each man must express to the de- 
gree he knows, and all this expression, in so far as 
it is thoroughly harmonious or scientific, is a record 
of the inner kingdom which is taking form on earth. 
It is God speaking to men through rhythm and melody, 
and each man having heard, should try to interpret 
to his fellow-man that which he has heard. This, 
then, is living the musical life. Being attuned to God, 
so that both the inner eye and the inner ear may hear 
the celestial tones and see the heavenly colours. If 
people could only realise how much more health and 
happiness would be theirs by living the truly musical 
life, surely they who knew this would seek, not only 
to live this life inwardly, but to give full expression to 
it outwardly. What a wonderful place this world 
would be if each soul in it was trying to carry out the 



298 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

divine plan of living in so far as it was able to know 
and understand ! All humanity joining together in one 
great symphony into which, from the lowest elemental 
note to the highest spiritual note, would come the won- 
der of melody and the beauty of harmony. But the in- 
dividual may say : the world is not yet ready for such 
an upward step. Granting that what he says is true, 
there is nevertheless another side to the question. 
Everything comes first through individual effort. The 
ideal set up by the soul comes in time to be the one 
held by the many. Each person is expected to give 
to the world whatever he may be in possession of, and 
through his doing this, the world becomes enriched 
and the giver also derives new light, so that he may 
continue on in his giving. Let the individual live as 
though the coming of the kingdom of God on earth 
depended on his own efforts, and it will not be long 
before he will find that others have become related 
to him with the same object and purpose in view. The 
individual who lives in a rhythmic, melodious, har- 
monious way, and lives it to the full, becomes a mighty 
magnet to attract, not only all the forces needed by 
himself for the successful carrying out of the work in 
which he is engaged, but also to attract others who 
will aid him in such work. The vital power to inspire 
his outer work must come from within, but to one 
who lives the fulness of such a life there will come all 
the means necessary for the outer work. Because all 
things do work together for good to those who love 
God, and there is no truer way of loving God than 
by becoming harmoniously related to man and trying 
to make the world a better place for people to live in. 
When man learns to love and serve his fellow-man, 
then he is drawing close to God. Through love and 



EYE HATH NOT SEEN 299 

service, love to inspire and service to express, shall 
man enter into the kingdom of God. No one who is 
in possession of a living ideal should refrain from 
giving an outer expression to it because he stands 
alone. He always will stand alone if he hides his 
light under a bushel. Energy in rhythmic motion is 
the great law of the universe. From it come all the 
forms of life. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, 
do it with thy might." Every problem of life has to 
be worked out. Action is life; inaction is death. 
More people pass out of this world because of inac- 
tion than because of too much action. People seldom 
if ever recognise the importance of being rightly ad- 
justed to their work. If work is a hardship and we 
bring to it a grumbling or fault-finding disposition, 
we shall find it difficult to do anything in the best pos- 
sible way. If we take pleasure in our work, and give 
it our best thought, we shall not only do it quickly and 
well, but it will become a true expression of the idea 
that exists in the mind of the worker. 

If one can use harmony in one's daily life, one will 
get from it not only quality but quantity as well. For 
harmony is necessary to all true expression, whether 
it be in music, in work, or in one's relation to one's 
fellow-man. Each person has the power within him- 
self to produce the harmony that is necessary to live 
life in a lawful, orderly way. Each person must make 
his own harmony. No one can have it done by proxy. 
His life will become just as great and as beautiful as 
he wishes and wills it to become. He can make his 
mind receptive to the inner rhythm and melody 
through a constant effort on his part to make that 
rhythm and melody thoroughly harmonious in his 
outer life. Humanity is one great body of which each 



300 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

individual is a part. Each part must realise its rela- 
tion to the whole, and through such realisation be- 
come harmoniously related to the whole. The part 
owes this to the whole, and when it has established 
true relationship, then it becomes responsive to all the 
strength and health and power that exists in the 
whole. The full attention of the individual must first 
of all be directed to forming his true relationship to 
the grand body of humanity. And when that is once 
fully established, there will come all the receiving that 
is in any way necessary to the part. 

In the past, the individual thought of himself, not 
only as being separated from the Power that brought 
him into existence, but also separated from his fellow- 
men, having to stand alone, as it were, entirely de- 
pendent upon himself and his own resources. In the 
last few years there has been a gradual change from 
that way of looking at life. New ideals are entering 
the minds of men and women. Intellectually they are 
beginning to perceive the great, all-inclusive brother- 
hood of humanity. Only in a minor way have we 
begun to feel that brotherhood; for thought without 
feeling is never productive of great results. But if 
we can think and even feel a little of this brotherhood, 
then we are on the right road, and eventually there 
must come the fuller feeling and the larger thought. 
Each person whose mind is filled with this ideal of 
brotherhood may hasten the day of its coming by 
trying, in his limited way, to live that which he feels 
and thinks. He must live that which he feels and 
thinks so that he may become a living example of 
what true brotherhood should mean in the world. 
His heart should be imbued with lovingkindness and 
good will. His every effort should be directed toward 



EYE HATH NOT SEEN 301 

a full and free outward expression of all that he feels 
and thinks in his inner consciousness. In following 
this course, he not only becomes a light to the lives 
of others, but he is in an ever-ascending scale which 
will carry him from one height to a still greater one. 
Through blessing the world he is blessing himself. 
Through giving happiness he is receiving happiness. 
His life has become a never-ending melody. He is 
leaving the dead things of the past behind and is press- 
ing forward to those things which lie before. 

"But life shall on and upward go; 
Th' eternal step of Progress beats 
To that great anthem, calm and slow, 
Which God repeats." 

In conclusion, let me briefly sum up a few of the 
benefits to be derived from music and colour. Let 
us take, in the first place, the healing of the body of 
man. When the body is sick or diseased, a diagnosis 
will show that its molecular vibration is unrhythmic 
and inharmonious; the circulation of the blood is so 
disturbed by this condition that there is too great a 
flow to some parts of the body and not sufficient to 
the other parts; consequently, the body is not evenly 
nourished in all parts. If the harmony of rhythm 
could be again established, without doubt the body 
would resume its normal or healthy condition. 
Through the production of rhythm, melody, and har- 
mony of musical sound there would be set up in the 
body exactly the same kind of vibration as that pro- 
duced by the music, because whatever may be the 
original kind or quality of vibration, it continues to the 
end. Such musical vibration, then, of a consequence 
produces molecular musical vibration of the body, 
and restores it to its necessary harmony. Again, in 



302 THE RHYTHM OF LIFE 

a certain, yet in a much finer way, harmony of colour 
vibration would act on all the atoms of man's body 
to produce harmonious atomic vibration. In the res- 
toration of the body to its normal physical health and 
strength, the one important thing to know would be 
the kind or quality of music and colour necessary to 
set up the harmony of molecular and atomic vibration. 
It will be found that the heart and the mind of the 
patient must be, as it were, attuned to both, because 
the body is only the instrument upon which vibration 
acts, and if the heart and mind are not attuned to 
vibration, it cannot produce other than temporary 
results. In other words, in order to maintain the 
rhythm and harmony of molecular and atomic vibra- 
tion it becomes necessary that heart and mind should 
undoubtedly become attuned to sound and colour vi- 
bration, and in this way a habit be established; for a 
habit once formed tends to make permanent any con- 
dition, whether it be of mind or of body. 

A step farther brings us to a still more important 
matter. Man is a little cosmos, summing up in his 
physical body every element in the physical universe, 
and in his spiritual nature every quality that exists or 
has its being in the Universal Soul. His physical 
body being a part of the universe and being more alive 
than any form on earth, must respond in a greater 
way to vibratory energy than does any other. But 
the degree to which any form may be said to be alive, 
must be dependent upon the life and consciousness 
that animates it. Only the occasional man in the past 
has been alive or conscious of his relation to the whole, 
of his at-one-ment, not only to the universe of form, 
but the universe of spirit as well. Without such reali- 
sation or consciousness, the life does not know how 



EYE HATH NOT SEEN 303 

to establish the rhythm and harmony that must exist 
between the part and the whole. For the part must 
eventually come to beat In conscious rhythm, melody, 
and harmony with the whole. Everything necessary 
for this exists potentially in the soul, but man in his 
mentality has not awakened to it, and consequently, 
is not using all his innate powers and possibilities. 
But music and colour may both be made to cause the 
inner chords of life to vibrate in unison with the 
great Cosmic forces of the universe, and when this is 
brought to pass, man will have attained consciously to 
the life everlasting. 

"Upward the soul forever turns her eyes; 
The next hour always shames the hour before; 
One beauty, at its highest, prophesies 
That by whose side it shall seem mean and poor; 
No God-Hke thing knows aught of less and less, 
But widens to the boundless Perfectness." 

Therefore man's mental, spiritual, and physical life 
is dependent on his receptivity to the inner rhythm and 
outer harmonies of music and colour. And through 
such receptivity he becomes responsive, giving out of 
his own life all the rhythm, melody, and harmony 
that lives within it. And because of such giving, he 
enters Into a still greater realisation of the wonder 
and beauty of life. This is the only way of the up- 
ward trend that leads from earth to heaven, that leads 
from humanity to divinity, and it Is in this way that 
the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God 
will become a living realisation. Then shall all hu- 
manity mingle their voices In one grand symphony of 
song which shall unite with and become one in 
Rhythm, Melody, Harmony, and Beauty with the mu- 
sic of the spheres. 



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